LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Chi^istian Standaf^, 



A Weekly Religious and Family Newspaper, devoted to the 
Advocacy of Primitive Christianity. 



edited by 
Isaac Errett, Cincinnati, J. S. Lamar, Augusta, Ga. 



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R. W. CARROLL & CO., Publishers, 
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iniT^C^ 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 

BY 

ISAAC ERRETT, 

EDITOR OF *' THE CHRISTIAN STANDARD," AUTHOR OF 
" WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM," ETC. 



" And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by 
night unto Berea : who, coming thither, went into the synagogue 
of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessa- 
lonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, 
and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. 
Therefore many of them believed ; also of honorable women which 
were Greeks, and of men, not a few." — ^Acts xvii : 10-12. 







COPYRIGHT 




\^i 



CINCINNATI: 

R. W. Carroll & Co., Publishers. 
1872. 



^^l"^' 



Uf conoM** 

IwAtHlHglSSl 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

R. W. CARROLL & CO., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



mT^HE "Talks'* here given to the public originally appeared in the editorial 
columns of *' The Christian Standard/' They are published In this form 
in obedience to numerous calls from those who read them as they appeared, from 
week to week, in that journal. They are designed, as will be seen from the 
title-page, as a help and encouragement to that class of inquirers with whom the 
Scriptures are divine authority. They are not meant for skeptics, or for any 
who occupy rationalistic ground. They assume the truth of the Scriptures and 
the divine authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are multitudes who 
accept these premises who are, nevertheless, in great doubt and confusion of 
mind as to what the Scriptures teach concerning the way of salvation. These 
doubts and confusions grow largely out of the theological controversies of the 
past, and the influence of these on the religious education of the adherents of 
different sects. As very many of those for whom we write are plain people, of 
limited education, and without the means or the leisure to pursue a liberal 
course of reading in theological controversies, we have sought, in plain lan- 
guage, to unfold the teachings of the Bible, avoiding, as much as possible, 
attempts at criticism and allusions to denominational peculiarities. Our object 
has been to lead sinners to believe in, love, and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, 
assured that if they become Christians indeed, it will make little difference if 
they should remain forever ignorant of theological controversy. We send it 
forth with a prayer that it may be blessed in guiding honest souls out of doubt 
and anguish into faith and peace. 

Cincinnati, yuly 25, 1872. 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON PAGE 

I. Sin 9 

II. Salvation i8 

III. The Gradual Development of Salvation 25 

IV. The Fullness of Time 33 

V. The Great Gift 43 

VI. The Mission of the Holy Spirit 56 

VII. The Human Side 65 

VIII. The Embassadors of Christ 72 

IX, Terms of Forgiveness 81 

X. Faith 96 

XI. Faith 109 

XII. Repentance 119 

XIII. Confession 127 

XIV. Baptism 133 

XV. Baptism 146 

XVI. A New Creature 159 

XVII. A NeviT Creature 169 

XVIII. Exhortation 177 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



SERMON I. 

SIN. 

"Dead in trespasses and in sins.*' — Eph. ii. i, 

TO aid' honest inquirers anxiously seeking the 
way of life, as well as to fortify young disci- 
ples, that they may know the certainty of those 
things wherein they have been instructed, we pro- 
pose to write a series of short sermons on the first 
principles of the doctrine of Christ. They are not 
designed to convince skeptics, nor yet to convict 
the impenitent ; but rather to give help to such as 
believe the Bible and feel the weight of sin, and 
desire to understand clearly the gospel of salva- 
tion. 

The gospel is addressed to sinners. It assumes 

(9) 



10 TALKS TO BEBEANS. 

that all men are sinners; that they need to be saved 
from sin; and it presents Jesus as an all-sufficient 
Saviour. 

We ought to have well-defined ideas of sin and 
its consequences, if we would understand and ap- 
preciate the salvation which the gospel offers. 

When we look at the universe of matter, as far 
as it is open to our inspection, we are struck with 
one contrast which it presents to the universe of 
mind or spirit : in the former, order and harmony 
is the rule, disorder and discord the exception ; in 
the latter, disorder, discord, and wretchedness are 
largely in the ascendant. Even much that seems, 
at first sight, to be disorder in the material system, 
proves, on fuller investigation, to be subservient to 
harmonious ends ; but in regard to the moral na- 
ture, we are painfully conscious in our own experi- 
ence, and impressed by all our observations, that 
there is an almost utter want of peace and har- 
mony, and a fearful prevalence of unrest and 
wretchedness. 

The reason of this perfect order in the universe 
of matter is, the perfect stipremacy of law. The Will 
of God is the fountain of order and happiness. In- 
finitely wise and infinitely good, He wills only that 



SIN. I J 

which is for the best ; and whenever that will is 
obeyed, there must be the best results. That will 
impresses itself df naked oimtipotence on material 
things ; every, particle of matter obeys it : hence, 
all his works declare his glory, and show forth his 
praise. 

In the moral universe, the same condition of 
blessedness prevails — ^perfect obedience to the will 
of God. If all moral creatures obeyed his will, 
the perfection of moral beauty and excellence 
would be seen. But that will asserts itself in a 
different way in dealing with moral natures. It is 
not here the naked omnipotence by which matter 
is controlled. Man has reason, conscience, will. 
He must be controlled by authority^ not by om- 
nipotent power merely. He must be ruled by 
motive. The very fact that he has been created 
with a will of his own, puts it in his power to op- 
pose the will of God. He has in fact done so; has 
made disorder, and robbed himself of the perfect 
happiness which might have been his. This 
resistance to the will of God — this departure 
from divine authority — this setting-up of some 
other will in the place of God's will — is what is 
called sift, " Sin," says John, " is the transgres- 



12 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

sion of the law/' or lawlessness. The law of God 
is simply the expression of the will of God. And 
as the will of God is the fountain of order and of 
happiness, it follows that sin is the fountain of dis- 
order and of wretchedness. 

To be perfectly obedient to God is to be in 
harmony with God himself, and therefore to en- 
joy his love and fellowship, and to be perfectly 
blessed. To depart from that will, in any par- 
ticular, is to depart alike from honor, peace, and 
blessedness. The Greek term which is most fre- 
quently translated sin, in the New Testament, 
means, to miss -the mark. It is a departure from 
the true aim of life and from the straight line of 
duty. 

But let us be careful to guard against error here. 
Let us not get the notion that the will of God re- 
lates merely to external actions, or that sin is 
merely the transgression of law in external acts. 
The will of God relates to our whole nature. It 
seeks to hold reason, conscience, and all the moral 
affections under its beneficent control ; and we 
may sin, therefore, in thought, in affection, in pur- 
pose: indeed, since we are moral beings, the sin in 
external act is but the offspring of sin in the 



SIN. 



13 



thoughts and affections. ^'From ivithm, out of the 
heart, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornica- 
tions, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, 
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, 
pride, foolishness : all these evil things come from 
within, and defile the man."* The basis of all 
piety and morality is. Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, 
and with all thy strength ; and. Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself f Sin, therefore, has its 
seat in the heart, and we can only be delivered 
from it as the heart is restored to perfect loyalty 
to God. A man is "tempted, when he is drawn 
away by his own lusts, and enticed. Then when 
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death." % 

In the light of these considerations, how fear- 
fully have we all wandered from God, and what 
great need have we of salvation ! 

The legitimate results of sin may be viewed : 
I. With reference to the sinner himself It 
alienates him from the life of God. Inevitably, 
by an eternal law of the moral universe, it unfits 



^Mark vii. 21-23. tMatt, xxii. 37-39. JJas. 1. 14, 15. 



14 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

him for God's presence, and impels him to flee 
from it. 

It dethrones his spiritual nature, and gives su- 
premacy to his passions, thus introducing misrule, 
degradation, and death — death in trespasses and 
sins. 

It evermore increases its power, until all that is 
noble and excellent is crushed under the tyranny 
of lust and passion ; the spirit is subjugated by the 
flesh, reason is perverted, conscience is blunted, 
the affections are all corrupted ; and if this is un- 
checked, it reaches a point of degradation from 
which there is no return — the moral nature being 
so violated and outraged as to be incapable of as- 
serting itself This is an awful, hopeless depth of 
death. " Evil men and seducers wax worse and 
worse, deceiving and being deceived."* 

II. With reference to God, It places the sin- 
ner in antagonism with God — in an attitude of 
rebellion which affects the divine authority and 
God's government of his intelligent creation. 
It is, in this point of view, a most serious and 
awful thing, and has consequences as far-reaching 



*2 Tim. iii. 13. 



SIN. 15 

as the moral government of Jehovah. It is im- 
possibly, therefore, that God can lightly regard it. 

III. Wilk refereitce to destiny. As destiny 
necessarily grows out of character, and we can 
only possess such a future as we have been pre- 
pared for, — the affections, desires, principles and 
purposes cherished here necessarily being a part 
of us, and going with us wherever we go, — it fol- 
lows that, unless delivered from sin, our destiny 
can be none other than the full fruits of the dis- 
order and wretchedness that sin has caused: an 
eternal alienation from God, an eternal degradation 
of our nobler nature, an eternal harvest of the 
seeds of iniquity which we have sown. God de- 
liver us ! 

But we fail to get a complete view of what sin 
has done to injure and ruin us, if we confine our 
view to its immediate effects on ourselves. We 
must take into account that we inherit sad and 
terrible consequences of sin. By that fearful, but 
necessary law, which involves the child with the 
parent, and the individual with the race, we in- 
herity if not guilt, certainly terrible misfortunes. 
Our first parents were placed on trial — it was the 
trial of human nature. They fell — it was the 



1 6 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

fall of human nature. They were exiled from 
God — it was the exile of human nature. We are 
all co7tsequently born in exile from God, and with 
disordered natures. We grow up in ignorance of 
God. If left to drift, we must drift inevitably 
away from God. Unless help comes from without, 
we are undone. Unless God is gracious, we are 
lost forever. 

Here, then, is the sad state of things that sin 
has superinduced : 

1. We are by nature the children of wrath.* 

2. We are alienated from the life of God 
through the ignorance that is in us.f 

3. We are enemies in our minds by wicked 
works. J 

Evidently we can not save ourselves out of 
these fearful predicaments. We must find a 
Saviour, or perish. Some one must be fpund who 
can. 

(i.) Banish our ignorance, and restore to us the 
knowledge of God. 

(2.) Destroy the dominion of sin, and deliver us 
from wicked works. 



* Eph. ii. 3. f Eph. iv. 18. { Col. i. 21. 



SIN. 



17 



{$.) Remove the guilt of sin, and reconcile us to 
God. 

In a word, we must be regenerated — born 
again — and brought into new life and new re- 
lationships. A second Adam must be found, in 
whom we may inherit righteousness and life, and 
be restored to the fellowship of God and a life of 
cheerful obedience. 



SERMON II. 

SALVATION. 

" For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, serving divers 
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 
But when the kindness and philanthropy of our Saviour God was manifested — 
not by works wrought in righteousness which we did, but according to his 
mercy he saved us, through the font of regeneration and the renewing of the 
Holy Ghost ; whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Sa- 
viour ; that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs accord- 
ing to the hope of eternal life." — Titus iii. 3-7. {Al/orcTs revision,) 

WE saw in the first sermon the ruin wrought 
by sin, and the impossibility of man's re- 
covery, except by help from without and above 
himself. This estimate of the fallen and hopeless 
condition of our race is justified by the history 
of mankind, which is, indeed, but a history of sin, 
and of unavailing experiments on the part of men 
at self-recovery. Not that all virtue and goodness 
were obliterated. Amid the ruins of the temple 
of humanity, there have ever lingered some beams 
of the Light which at first filled it with glory. 

Some nations have been distinguished for partic- 
(18) 



SALVATION. 



19 



ular virtues, and some individuals have been emi- 
nent in almost all virtues, according to human 
standards of excellence. But it is to be con- 
sidered: 

1. That men have never been left entirely to 
themselves. All nations have inherited more or 
less of redeeming and regenerating influences 
through divine movements in human society. 

2. The best men of whom heathen nations are 
wont to boast, derived their eminence from the 
contrast of their lives with the degraded and de- 
moralized masses around them, rather than from 
their conformity to such a standard as would fit 
them for restoration to the fellowship of God. 

3. The masses under the reign of sin, even 
where there was the greatest intellectual exalta- 
tion, have ever been morally degraded, '* disobe- 
dient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, 
filled with malice and envy, hateful, and hating 
one another." Read Rom. i. 18-32, for a state- 
ment of the moral condition of the Gentile world — 
a statement fully corroborated by heathen authors ; 
and Romans iii. 9-19, for an inspired sketch of 
the moral condition of the Jews ; and say what 
hope there was for humanity without a Saviour. 



20 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

The utter hopelessness of this condition may be 
gathered from two considerations : 

(i.) The very impulse to goodness — the desire 
for it, and the strength to achieve it — was con- 
stantly more and more impaired by sin, so that 
power to do good must come from without. 

(2.) Man, as a creature under law to God, can 
only be justified by complete obedience to that 
law. Do his best, and there is never any extra 
virtue that can be urged as an equivalent for sins 
committed or duties neglected. Even sixty-nine 
years and three hundred and sixty-four days of 
perfect obedience, could only answer for them- 
selves — they could not stand, in law, to offset the 
sins of a single day. Evidently, then, we can not 
be saved by works of righteousness. Justification 
by law is out of the question. Our only hope is in 
the mercy of the God against whom we have sin- 
ned. This is the glad revelation of the gospel : 
*^ Not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his mercy he saved us." 

God compassionates his sinful and perishing 
creatures; his heart of infinite love yearns toward 
them, and, out of his own treasures of wisdom and 
of power, he brings forth the means of salvation. 



SALVATION, 21 

It is well to pause and consider this most pre- 
cious and vital truth — salvation by grace. It is 
difficult for men under deep conviction of sin to 
realize it. They condemn themselves severely, and 
loathe their own sinfulness, and are apt to transfer 
to God the hue of their own feelings, so as to see in 
him only an offended sovereign frowning in wrath 
on the guilty. That God is just and hates sin, is 
true ; but he does not hate the sinner, nor is it diflS- 
cult to prevail with him to forgive those who seek 
forgiveness. He loves the sinner, and delights to 
forgive. There is a beautiful and precious w^ord 
in our text — philanthropy ; the love of man. Not 
the love of a particular class of men, — good men, 
smart men, brave men, elect men, — but the love 
of man as man, just because he is man, and there- 
fore the love of all men. Divine Love, seeking a 
world of sinners to save them, is the beautiful 
spectacle presented to us in the gospel of salva- 
tion. Hence that grand oracle: "God so loved 
t/ie world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life."* **God, who is rich in 

■^ John iii. 1 6. 



22 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

mercy (not only merciful, but 7^ic/i in mercy — an 
immense wealth of mercy not readily exhausted), 
for his great love wherewith he loved us (not only 
love, but gi'eat love — love not hard to be entreat- 
ed, love not difficult of access, love that does not 
wait for us to come and seek it, but comes to seek 
us, and weep over us, and plead with us, and en- 
lighten us, and give the most precious life for us), 
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened 
us together with Christ, and raised us up together, 
and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus/'* " Herein is love, not that we 
loved God, but that God loved us, and sent his 
Son to be the propitiation for our sins/'f 

Salvation is, then, of grace, not of works. If 
saved at all, we are saved because God is gracious, 
and has in mercy provided salvation for us. An 
immense stride out of darkness into light is taken 
- when we learn that the mercy of God is the fount- 
ain of salvation, and that he is rich in mercy to all 
that call upon him. 

But it does not follow, because we are saved by 
grace, and not by works of righteousness, that we 



* Eph. ii. 4-6. t I John iv. 10. 



SALVATION. 



23 



have nothing to do in order to be saved. It is the 
salvation, not of a mass of unreasoning matter, but 
of a living, thinking, and moral creature. Salva- 
tion is not a mere sovereign act of forgiveness, or 
the impress of regenerating power upon a passive 
nature, but the recovery of the understanding, 
conscience, affections, and will, out of all their per- 
versions and corruptions, and the sad consequences 
of these perversions, and the placing of that whole 
nature again in harmonious relations with God. 
It is to make an ignorant being intelligent, a pol- 
luted one pure, a sinful one righteous, a rebellious 
one obedient, and a despairing one hopeful and 
joyous. "The grace of God that bringeth salva- 
tion hath appeared to all men, teaching us that 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should 
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our Sav- 
iour Jesus Christ ; who gave himself for us, that 
he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify 
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works."* So also our text marks tie contrast 



■ Titus ii. 11-14. 



24 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



between the disobedience, hatefulness, and lust- 
fulness of the unsaved state, and the purity and 
blessedness of the state of regeneration or re- 
newal. 

Now it is evident that such a change involves 
the consent of the will, the exercise of the affec- 
tions, and the obedience of the life ; and that while 
God provides salvation, he provides it in accord- 
ance with the wants and capacities of our spiritual 
nature, and seeks to win us to it. It must, on our 
part, be received and appropriated. 

The whole subject of salvation, then, lies within 
the scope of two inquiries : 

I. What has God done to save us ? 

II. What is man required to do to be saved? 

We will attend to these in their order. 



SERMON III. 

THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF SALVATION. 

" God who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in times past unto 
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son." — 
Heb. i. I, 2. 

THE question now before us is, What has 
God done to save us? We must give sev- 
eral sermons to this question. For the present, 
we design to note the progressive development of 
God's gracions designs in behalf of onr race. 

Salvation was not revealed all at once. The 
preparations for its full and final revelation, ex- 
tended over a period of four thousand years. Many- 
are tempted to ask why. Why did not the Saviour 
come at once, and announce to the first sinners the 
same gospel that we find in the New Testament.'* 
If we could not tell why, we are still compelled to 
accept the fact that it was not so done. The 
scientist, in exploring the fields of nature, finds 

that, in building a globe like that on which we 

(25) 



26 TALKS TO BEREAXS. 

live, God has patiently progressed with his work 
through long geological periods. The man of 
science may not "be able to tell why. He may 
conceive the possibility of divine power accom- 
plishing such a work instantaneously ; but he is 
compelled to admit the fact of progressive devel- 
opment, whether he understands its philosophy or 
not. The most he can say is, it is in accordance 
with the principle of divine movements — the law 
of divine action — that is every-w^here traceable in 
God's works. So here. The fact is what con- 
cerns us, even if we remain ignorant of its phi- 
losophy. The fact is, that four thousand years 
were occupied in preparing the way for the com- 
ing of the Saviour, and the complete development 
of his salvation. But we are not without some 
knowledge of reasons for this procedure. We can 
discover reasons for it here that do not so readily 
apply to the analogous progression in material 
creations. We can conceive the possibility of 
Omnipotence speaking worlds into being in an in- 
stant ; but we can not, with equal facility, think of 
Omnipotence swaying rational natures, and com- 
pelling beings, who have a will of their own, to 
love and hate, obey and disobey, be good or evil, 



DEVELOPMENT OF SAL VA TION. 27 

at a word of command. Such a notion has, in- 
deed, prevailed in many minds. Edwards, for in- 
stance, in his History of Redemption, speaking of 
the Flood, says: *' God could have converted all 
the world instead of drowning it:" thus making 
their conversion a mere question of power, and 
resolving the cause of their destruction into a 
failure on the part of God to will their conversion ! 
This is monstrous. It is the logical result, how- 
ever, of false premises in Edwards's theological 
system. We have seen that salvation involves the 
restoration of the rebellious soul to loyalty^to 
delight in and fellowship with God. This, in its 
turn, involves choice on the part of the sinner— a 
voluntary turning from falsehood to truth, from 
sin to holiness. No such voluntary turning can 
take place until the sinner learns enough of the 
odious curse of sin to hate it, and is convinced of 
the beauty of holiness, so as to desire it ; nor can 
it be until he has become so satisfied of his own 
impotence as to be willing to accept the boon of 
salvation at the hands of another. He must learn 
in the school of experience. Time must be given » 
for sin to develop itself in the history of the race, 
and for men to try their own remedial schemes. 



28 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

Only when, like the prodigal, they have wasted 
their substance, exhausted their resources, and 
feel the pressure of utter despair, will they come 
to themselves, and say, ** I will arise and go to 
my Father." It required ages for the needful 
experiments of sinful man in government, philos- 
ophy, and religion, before the need of salvation 
could be suitably realized. Hence Paul says, that 
as men '*did not like to retain God in their knowl- 
edge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind;"* 
and that ''in times past he suffered all nations to 
walk in their own ways,"! y^^ ^^^ leaving himself 
without witness. We must regard these four 
thousand years, then, as given up to the various 
nations for experiment, until they should weary 
of their vain inventions. Meanwhile, the develop- 
ment of salvation could only keep pace with the 
development of human nature, and the attainments 
of human experience. God's revelations must 
adapt themselves to the circumstances and capac- 
ities of the race he seeks to save. 

During this period of experiment, God chooses 
such men and measures as will meet the emergen- 



*Rom. i. 28. t Acts xiv. 16. 



DEVELOPMENT OF SALVATION, 29 

cies as they arise — ever having in view the final 
object, to reveal a complete system of salvation. 
During the first periods he chose individuals and 
families through whom to make known his pur- 
poses, and assert his redeeming power. After- 
ward he chose a nation as his own — not for their 
own sake, but for the world's sake — that through 
these elect persons and this elect nation he might 
move on the nations of men, and reveal, " at sun- 
dry times and in divers manners," such portions 
of his will and such ideas of himself and his pur- 
poses as would tend to prepare the way for their 
return to him. 

It must never be forgotten, in reading the Old 
Testament, that it presents a gradual unfolding of 
the purposes and plans of God for the salvation 
of the world. Love and Mercy preside over all 
this period, shaping, molding, restraining men, 
thwarting rebellious purposes, raising up and cast- 
ing down nations,* and making such revelations 
of truth and righteousness, judgment and grace, 
as men could receive. It is only in this large 
view, and interpreting its words in the light of 



■See Ex. ix. 16; Jer. xviii. i-io. 



30 



TALKS TO BEEEANS, 



this grand purpose, that the facts of the Old Test- 
ament can have a worthy meaning. Abraham was 
chosen by grace, and not on account of merit — for 
he too was an idolater. But he was thus chosen 
from others, not to eternal life, but to be a fit in- 
strument and agent to accomplish God's gracious 
purposes in behalf of others. Isaac was elected 
over Ishmael, and Jacob over Esau, not to eternal 
life, but as God*s agents to do a work toward the 
world's redemption. The Jewish nation was an 
elect nation — elected, not to eternal life, but to a 
peculiar position among the nations, and as the 
inheritor of peculiar privileges, for the benefit of 
the zvorld at large. With this thought before the 
reader,, much that has been dark and perplexing in 
such scriptures as Rom. ix will be relieved of dif- 
ficulty. We must understand the purposes, pre- 
destinations, and elections so often spoken of in 
the New Testament as referring to this grand 
purpose to save men through Jesus Christ, and 
the election and reprobation of individuals and of 
nations as they would serve or fail to serve this 
purpose. 

We often read of the purpose of God, — his pre- 
vious purpose or predestination. " He saved us 



DEVELOPMENT OF SALVATION, 



31 



. . . according to his own purpose and grace, 
which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the 
times of the agesT^ *' In hope of eternal Hfe, 
which God, who can not lie, pro^nised before the 
times of the ages, but he has, in his own times, 
manifested his word by preaching."! *' All things 
work together for good to those who . . . are 
called, according to his purpose. For whom he did 
foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be con- 
formed to the image of his Son, that he might be 
the first born among many brethren. Moreover, 
whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and 
whom he called, them he also justified ; and whom 
he justified, them he also glorified.''^ Although 
this purpose was but dimly revealed through the 
preparatory ages, and was '' a mystery kept secret 
from ages," we learn from Paul that God was work- 
ing all this time according to a definite purpose 
and plan. The gospel was therefore '^preached 
beforehand^' to Abraham, "the Scripture foresee- 
ing that God would justify the heathen nations 
by faith. "§ Accordingly, Jesus came " in the full- 



•^ 2 Tim. i. 9. t Tit. i. 2, 3. 

J Rom. viii. 28-30. See also Eph. iii. i-ii. J Gal. iii. 8. 



32 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

ness of time ; "* in ** the last days " of the pre- 
paratory ages ; and what had been but partially 
spoken " at sundry times and in divers manners," 
during those ages, is fully spoken now by God's Son. 

Learn, hence, that the Old Testament does not 
contain a complete revelation of salvation. It 
contains hints, promises, types, prophecies of it, 
in numerous phases, and should be studied for an 
intelligent view of the method of God's dealings 
with men ; but the complete salvation, — '' the ripe 
corn in the ear," of which only the blade and the 
ear are seen in the Jewish scriptures, is found 
only in the New Testament. 

All that we have been contemplating exhibits 
the wisdom and mercy of God in a patient prep- 
aration of the world for the complete develop- 
ment of the "great salvation." From the an- 
nouncement to Adam, that the seed of the woman 
shall bruise the serpent's head,! until John the Bap- 
tist said, '' Behold the Lamb of God who taketh 
away the sin of the world," J all is a progressive de- 
velopment of the eternal purpose of Jehovah to of- 
fer salvation to " all the world, to every creature." 

*Gal. iv. 4. f Gen. iii. 15. tjohn i. 29. 




SERMON IV. 

THE FULLNESS OF TIME. 

'* But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son." — 
Gal. iv. 4. 

'E have already spoken of some of the 
reasons why salvation could not be per- 
fectly revealed at once, — why ages of preparation 
were necessary, and, therefore, why the great pur- 
pose of God to offer salvation to all men was a 
secret, a "mystery" hidden from ages and from 
generations. We are now to show that the period 
of the advent of Jesus was " the fullness of time." 

I. Sin had been allowed full development. 

Its bitter and inevitable curses had followed men 
in all countries. The terrible plague-spot made its 
appearance every-where. No class was exempt, no 
individual was free from the malady. Every-where 
and always it was a poison in the cup of life, and 
its effects were deadly. Its bitter fruits in every 
3 (33) 



34 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



kind of disorder, pollution, crime, outrage, and 
suffering, entered into all experience, and reddened 
every page of human history with blood, or black- 
ened it with iniquity. Indeed, an experience 
much short of four thousand years might have 
sufficed on this head ; but, 

II. The different races of men had experimented 
to weariness in vain efforts to save themselves. 

This required time ; and at no time short of this 
period had these experiments landed the race in so 
thorough a despair. 

The utter failure of antediluvian attempts to 
control human nature and govern society is told 
in the flood that swept an incorrigible world into 
destruction. After the deluge, mighty civilizations 
were developed on the plains of Assyria, and the 
march of civilization thence to Egypt, to Greece, 
and to Rome, records successive and stupendous 
efforts of man, in his departure from God, to con- 
struct religions, philosophies, and governments 
that should effect the regeneration of the race. 
They started not without some capital. They 
took, in the treasures of original tradition, a con- 
siderable portion of goods from the Father's house, 
when they went forth on their prodigal career. 



THE FULLNESS OF TIME. 35 

They were not destitute of genius or of talents. 
As glorious minds as God has ever given to the 
race, he gave ever and anon to those ancient na- 
tions and peoples, that they might not lack any 
capacity that their own nature was capable of sup- 
plying. It ended in utter failure. There was . 
grand military skill ; there was sometimes great 
statesmanship ; there were glorious architectural 
monuments of taste, and genius, and labor; there 
were immortal triumphs of art wrought by pencil 
and chisel ; oratory and poetry that can never die 
have come down to us from those times, and the 
world echoes yet with speech, and music, and 
song, from hearts and lips inspired with genius 
that men call godlike. Science made discoveries, 
and Art wrought inventions, and Philosophy 
taught beautiful and wonderful things ; but sin 
still held sway, and no human genius or skill 
could break its power or unlock the awful myste- 
ries of death. Every generation sought to im- 
prove by the struggles and failures of its predeces- 
sors, until human wisdom was taxed to its utmost, 
and the world was bankrupt alike in faith and 
hope. The language of the elder Pliny will best 
express to us the utter helplessness and hopeless- 



36 TALKS TO BEEJEANS. 

ness in which these prodigious and long-continued 
efforts landed the race : 

" All religion is the offspring of necessity, weak- 
ness, and fear. What God is — if, indeed, he be 
any thing distinct from the world — it is beyond the 
compass of man's understanding to know. But it 
is a foolish delusion, which has sprung from hu- 
man weakness and human pride, to imagine that 
such an infinite Spirit would concern himself with 
the petty affairs of men. It is difficult to say 
whether it might not be better to be wholly with- 
out religion, than to have one of this kind, which 
is a reproach to its object. The vanity of man, 
and his insatiable longing after existence, have 
led him to dream of a life after death. A being 
full of contradictions, he is the most WTetched of 
creatures, since the other creatures have not wants 
transcending the bounds of their nature. Man is 
full of desires and wants that reach to infinity, 
and can never be satisfied. His nature is a lie, 
uniting the greatest poverty with the greatest 
pride. Among these so great evils, the best thing 
which God has bestowed on man, is the power to 
take his own life."* 



■^Quoted by Neander in Uie Introduction to liis Church History. 



THE FULLNESS OF TIME. 



37 



There it is. The prodigal has wasted his sub- 
stance, and is down among the swine feeding on 
husks. Nay, worse than the prodigal in the para- 
ble, he has lost all faith in a Father, all knowledge 
of a Father's house. It is time for the Saviour to 
come and seek the lost. 

III. The Jews had fulfilled their mission, both 
as a bulwark against idolatry in their national 
capacity, and as missionaries to carry the revela- 
tions of God among the nations of mankind. 
Alike in their high national prosperity, when, in 
league w^ith Tyre, they reached out over the seas 
in commercial enterprise, and in their captivities 
and dispersions, when Babylon, Nineveh, Ecbatana, 
Alexandria, and other great seats of empire and 
of learning, became centers of radiation for the 
truth they had in keeping, they fulfilled their won- 
derful mission in preparing the way for the com- 
ing of the Messiah. They came in contact with 
the political, commercial, and literary potencies of 
the different ages, under all the great d3'nasties of 
ancient times. As a specimen of the work provi- 
dentially accomplished by them, let us mention the 
translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, 
at Alexandria, more than two centuries before the 



38 TALKS TO BEEEANS. 

coming of the Christ. *'It was," says Thomas De 
Quincey, "an advantage of a rank rising to provi- 
dential, that such a cosmopolitan version of the 
Hebrew sacred writings should have been made 
at a moment when a rare concurrence of circum- 
stances happened to make it possible ; such, as for 
example, a king both learned in his tastes and 
liberal in his principles of religious toleration; a 
language — the Greek — which had already become 
what for many centuries it continued to be, a 
common language of communication for the 
learned of the whole civilized world, viz.: Greece, 
the shores of the Euxine, the whole of Asia Minor, 
Syria, Egypt, Carthage, and all the dependencies 
of Carthage; finally, and above all, Rome, then 
beginning to loom upon the western horizon, to- 
gether with all the dependencies of Rome, and, 
briefly, every State and city that adorned the im- 
perial islands of the Mediterranean, or that glit- 
tered like gems in that vast belt of land, roundly 
speaking, one thousand miles in average breadth, 
and in circuit running up to five thousand miles. 
. . . Such was the boundless domain which this 
extraordinary act of Ptolemy suddenly threw open 
to the literature and spiritual revelation of a little 



THE FULLNESS OF TIME, 39 

obscure race, nestling in a little angle of Asia, 
scarcely visible as a fraction of Syria, buried in 
the broad shadows thrown out on one side by the 
great and ancient settlements on the Nile, and on 
the other by the vast empire that for thousands 
of years occupied the Tigris and the Euphrates. 
In the twinkling of an eye, at a sudden summons, 
as it were, from the sounding of a trumpet, or the 
Oriental call by a clapping of hands, gates are 
thrown open which have an effect corresponding 
in grandeur to the effect that would arise from the 
opening of a ship canal across the Isthmus of 
Darien, viz.: the introduction to each other, face 
to face, of two separate infinities. Such a canal 
would suddenly lay open to each other the two 
great oceans of our planet ; while the act of trans- 
lating i7ilo Greek 2.x\Afrom Hebrew— that is, trans- 
ferring out of a mysterious cipher as little accessi- 
ble as Sanscrit, and which never would be more 
accessible through any worldly attractions of 
alliance with power and civic grandeur of com- 
mo^xz^—otit of this darkness into the golden light 
of a language the most beautiful, the most honored 
among men, and the most widely diffused through 
a thousand years to come, had the immeasurable 



40 



TALKS TO BEEEANS, 



effect of throwing into the great crucible of human 
speculation, even then beginning to ferment, to 
boil, to overflow, that mightiest of all elements for 
exalting the chemistry of philosophy, grand, and 
for the first time adequate, conceptions of the 
Deity. . . . And considering the activity of 
this great commercial city and port, which was 
meant to act, and did act, as a center of commu- 
nication between the East and the West, it is 
probable that a far greater effect was produced by 
the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, in 
the way of preparing the mind of nations for the 
apprehension of Christianity, than has ever been 
distinctly recognized."* 

It is no longer a wonder that Josephus, Sueto- 
nius, and Tacitus should agree to say that, accord- 
ing to the decrees of fate in the sacred books, 
mankind were taught to look to the time of the ap- 
pearing of Jesus, for the coming of a great Deliv- 
erer. The bitter experiences of the race, and the 
widely spread prophecies of the Jewish scriptures 
combined to make him '^the Desire of nations."! 



■* Theol. Essays, vol. I, pp. 146, 147. 

I While it was necessary that the influence of Judaism should 



THE FULL X ESS OF TIME. 



41 



IV. The Greek was the language of the civihzed 
world when Jesus came. The Roman empire, 
stretching from the Euphrates to the German 
Ocean, and from the Danube and the Rhine to 
the cataracts of the Nile, the African deserts and 
Mount Atlas, tolerated all religions at all compat- 
ible with civil order, unified as far as possible all 
interests, threw up great military highways into 
all provinces, and in preparing to preserve and 
maintain its own imperial sway, prepared the way 
for the heralds of the cross, and brought the main 
portions of the human family within reach of the 



spread unto the heathen world, in order to prepare the way and 
open a point of communication for Christianity, so was it needful 
also that the stern and repulsive rigidity "of Judaism should be 
softened and expanded by the elements of Hellenic culture, in 
order to adapt it to embrace the new truths which the gospel was 
to exhibit. The three great historical nations had, each in its own 
peculiar way, to co-operate in preparing the soil in which Chris- 
tianity was to be planted — the Jews on the side of the religious 
element, the Greeks on the side of science and art, the Romans as 
masters of the world, on the side of the political element. When 
the fullness of the time was come, and Christ appeared — when the 
goal of history had thus been reached — then it was that through 
hinij and by the power of the spirit that proceeded from him, by 
the might of Christianity, all the threads of human development 
which had hitherto been kept apart, were to be brouglit togetlier 
and interwoven in one work. — Neander''s Ch. Hist., Int. page 6, 
Bohn's Ed. 



42 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

regenerating influences of the truth and grace of 
God. 

Thus it is apparent that Jesus came in the 
"fullness of time." All the events of time were 
divinely ordered with reference to this great con- 
summation. The revelations made to the Jews, 
and through them to the world, were arranged in 
their development and dissemination, with refer- 
ence to the same event ''Christ was placed mid- 
most in the world's history; and in that central 
position, he towers, like some vast mountain, to 
heaven — the farther slope stretching backward to- 
ward the creation, the hither slope toward the 
approaching consummation of all things. The 
ages before look to him with prophetic gaze, the 
ages since behold him by historic faith ; by both 
he is seen in common, as 'the brightness of the 
Fathers glory,' and the unspeakable gift of God 
to the race." 



SERMON V. . 



THE GREAT GIFT. 



*' God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that 
whensoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." — 
John iii, i6. 

THE question now under consideration is, 
What has God done to save its ? The an- 
swer, in its most important feature, is given in the 
text. The great demonstration of divine grace 
and love is found in the gift of a Saviour. The 
greater inchides all lesser gifts. ** He that spared 
not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for 
us all, how shall he not, with him, also freely give 
us all things .'^"^ The gospel presents no pJiiloso- 
pJiy of salvation, — no theory, or system of doc- 
trines, to be accepted on the basis of reason ; but 
a Saviour, to be confided in, loved, and obeyed. 
Undoubtedly there is a philosophy and a true doc- 



(43) 



44 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



trinal theory belonging to the plan of salvation ; 
but (i) as this salvation has its springs in the 
depths of the Infinite mind, and its premises 
were laid in the Divine view — and not in any 
human view, — of the nature of God, of man, 
of sin, and of the ends of the Divine govern- 
ment, it is not likely that even the most gigantic 
of created ijitellects can ever fathom its mysteries 
or grasp its logic ; the angels desire to look into 
these things;* the ever-steadfast gaze of adoring 
cherubs that looked down on the mercy-seat f v/as 
but a type of the eternal fathoming of the eternally 
fathomless depths of Infinite wisdom and mercy by 
the grandest of created minds; and (2) if even the 
most gifted minds could dive into these depths and 
bring up for themselves pearls of great price, the 
great masses of men could not succeed in doing 
so. The masses can not seize abstractions. Truth 
must come to them in concrete form, — embodied, 
visible, tangible. God, therefore, gave the world a 
pe7'son — not a doctrine — and in him, in his nature, 
and in his character, all that is needful for sal- 
vation. The gospel is not, therefore, abstract 



*i Pet. i. 12. tEx. XXV. 20, 



THE GREAT GIFT 45 

truth to be accepted as the result of a process of 
abstract reasoning; but a biography, a history, — 
facts, to be supported by evidence, and to be be- 
lieved on the evidence presented. 

From what has been suggested in previous ser- 
mons, it is evident that two great wants of human 
nature must be met, in order to the salvation of 
sinners. 

I. God must be revealed in his relations to hu- 
manity. This called for a special and supernatural 
"" revelation. Nature does not teach it. Nature re- 
veals ''the eternal power and divinity" of Jehovah; 
but these are a revelation not more to the wants 
of man than to the wants of the grasshopper. It 
shows what God is to his whole creation, but not 
what he is to sinners. Men, as sinful and apostate 
creatures, must have a special revelation or perish 
in despair. Here is a legitimate demand for the 
supernatural, — an all-sufficient plea for miracles, 
or man is not worth saving. What God thinks of 
sinners, and how he is disposed to deal with them, 
are questions which Nature answers not. 

Nor can a revelation of mere words, like the 
Law, answer this end. Words can not bridge the 
awful chasm between apostate man and his Maker. 



46 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



They may furnish some idea of God's meaning; 
but they are of human origin, — they have a stand- 
ard value as the currency of human thought and 
feeling; and, however, richly freighted with divine 
grace and mercy, as interpreted to God's own 
heart, they can only be interpreted to man's heart 
according to his own standard, and will be, more 
or less, dwarfed into the measure of his own mis- 
erably stinted conception. 

God must come up07i the plane of JuLman life and 
identify himself zvith humanity before man can un- 
derstand him and trust in him. God manifest in 
flesh — Emmanuel — God with us, is the great need 
of the world. 

2. There must be a demonstration of Divine 
power to lift human nature out of its helplessness 
and carry it up to triumph over sin and death. It 
is of little use to prove that God is able to save 
man, or that it is reasonable that the Creator 
should tenderly compassionate his creature, or 
that it is in harmony with the soundest teaching 
of mental and moral science that man has recu- 
perative and restorative energies in his nature 
which will answer to the first quickening touch of 
truth and love. All this is pale moonshine play- 



THE GREAT GIFT. 47 

ing among icebergs, with glittering charms, but 
with no melting power. What is wanted is, to 
see human nature lifted up from its depths of 
weakness and wretchedness, and carried success- 
fully through the bitterest conflicts of sin, and sor- 
row, and death, to complete and immortal victory. 
All this is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, the 
son of Mary, and the Son of God. He was God 
manifest in human flesh, bringing God on to the 
plane of human want and woe, revealing Divine 
wisdom, holiness, tenderness, and mercy, through 
a human organization, and identifying the Creator 
with the creature in the most loving and pitying 
Fatherhood. He was also the Son of Man, and, 
as a man, his life was one grand series, not of 
reasonings, but of demonstrations of the willing- 
ness and power of God to save. From the ex- 
tremest weakness and helplessness of infancy on 
through all its phases of suffering, temptation, and 
wretchedness, this blessed champion went with our 
nature — shrinking from no trial, evading no foe, but 
seeking the most intimate association with all that 
is sorrowful, desolate, and despairing in the lot of 
man, — and out of every dungeon of captivity he 
brought that nature forth, its chains broken, its 



48 TALKS TO BEEEANS. 

tears wiped away, its broken heart bound up, its sins 
forgiven, its enemies made captive, and even death 
itself swallowed up in victory. It is no longer in 
doubt whether God loves man, whether sin can be 
conquered, whether there is another life after 
death; all this is denionstratio7i in the life, death, 
and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; it comes to 
us in the mighty /^^/^ of the gospel, frees the hu- 
man heart from doubt and despair, and fills it with 
the regenerating influences of faith, and hope, and 
love. 

To be more particular, this grand revelation is 
made to us — 

(i.) In the teacJiings of Jesus: teachings at once 
so simple, so oracular, so pure, so comprehensive, 
and so searching, that they reveal man to himself, 
and God to man, as neither was ever before re- 
vealed. '' Come, see the man that told me all 
things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ.^'* 
has been the language of millions besides the 
Samaritan woman. And millions hav^e said with 
Peter : '' To whom shall we go '^. Thou hast the 
words of eternal life, and we believe, and are sure, 
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God.'* 



THK GREAT GIFT. ^g 

(2.) In the life of Jesus : a life in which God so 
infinitely condescends, and man is so infinitely ex- 
alted; a life so intensely human, so Divinely per- 
fect; so apparently deformed in the harsh extremes 
that crowd into it, yet so grandly symmetrical in 
its reconciliation of all antagonisms; so gentle, so 
stern; so tempted, so pure; so weak, so mighty; so 
human, so divine, that man was never more en- 
tirely man nor God more perfectly God than in 
this marvelous revelation. God comes down to us 
in such condescensions and compassions, that fear 
is supplanted by love; and man is carried up into 
such strength and victory, that despair gives way 
to conquering faith and hope. God comes dovv^n 
to man, and the race is no longer fatherless. Man 
is brought back to God, and the race is no longer 
helpless. 

(3.) In the miracles of Jesus : miracles in which 
that grandest of all combinations is seen — Omnip- 
otence wedded to Love. The result is a series of 
wonders so grand and awful that we worship in 
their presence, and say, *' Truly this is the Son of 
God;" yet so sweet, and tender, and beautiful, 
that we weep and rejoice as we behold them, and 
the very children, charmed into enthusiasm, cry, 
4 



so 



TALKS TO BEREANS, 



** Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is he 
that conieth in the name of the Lord ! " 

(4.) In the sitfferings and death of Jesus. We 
may not know all the reasons why '*it behooved 
Christ to suffer," nor be able to grasp the philoso- 
phy of the atonement. But two things are cer- 
tain, (i.) If, to redeem a suffering race like ours, 
it was necessary that the Son of God should come 
on to the plane of human experiences, it was im- 
possible that he could redeem us except through 
sufferings. In some sort our sins and sorrows 
must become his, or he can not lift them away. 
The extent to which this is true is indicated in 
such language as this: ''He died for our sins."* 
*' He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
he might bring us to God."f " He himself bore 
our sins in his own body on the tree, that ye, be- 
ing freed from sin, should live unto righteousness : 
by whose stripes ye were healed. "| '' He was 
wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised 
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace 
was laid on him, and by his stripes we are healed. 
All we like sheep had gone astray; we had gone 



f^i Cor. XV. 3. tl Pet. iii. 18. % I Pet. ii, 24. 



THE GREAT GIFT 



51 



every one after his own way; but the Lord laid on 
him the iniquity of us all."* (2.) Nothing so touches 
the heart and quickens the sensibilities as suffer- 
ing — especially when it is voluntarily borne in be- 
half of others. This entrance, therefore, into our 
suffering lot — this voluntary acceptance of the bitter 
cup of human experience to be drunk to the dregs — 
involving poverty, loneliness, persecution, conflict 
with infernal powers, betrayal, revilings, buffet- 
ings, scourgings, crucifixion, and a descent into 
such darkness of despair as to extort the cry, 
*' My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken 
me ? *' until the heart broke under the load of re- 
proach, and shame, and despair, is the most touch- 
ing appeal that God could make to the human 
heart to win it to repentance. Love — suffering, 
toiling, and bleeding in our behalf, and bending 
over us with tears and agonies of grief to beseech 
us to be reconciled to God, is the culmination of 
heavenly eloquence; and when Jesus dies, of the 
plea, as well of the suffering, it may be said, " It 
is finished." This love must win us, or we are 
lost beyond redemption. 



*Isa. liii. 5, 6. 



52 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

(5.) In the 7'esurrection and exaltation of Jesus. 
Death is conquered, and man ascends in a chariot 
to the throne of God ! Blessed consummation ! 
All who have read the reasonings of philosophy 
on another life know through what intricate mazes 
the sages seek to thread their way, where but few 
can follow them, and how nebulous are their best 
conclusions on this subject. But here is a simple 
fact: Jesus rose from the dead. The lowly mind, 
the most unlettered among the broken-hearted 
of earth, can understand and appreciate it, and 
faith rejoices in that which philosophy searched for 
in vain. 

The salvation of man is complete, from igno- 
rance, from pollution, from weakness, from guilt, 
and from death, when the sinner appropriates, by 
faith, all the treasures of Divine wisdom, love, and 
power to be found in the life, death, and resurrec- 
tion of Jesus, the Christ. 

What Christ is in himself, in his personal excel- 
lence as the Son of God; what he is in his offices 
as the Christ, — as the anointed Prophet, Priest, 
and King; and what he has done for us, to redeem 
us from sin and its bitter fruits; are the three great 
questions that concern us, so far as saving faith is 



THE GREAT GIFT. 



53 



concerned. These questions settled, there remains 
but one more of real moment; namely, what he re- 
quires us to do. 

Our readers will now see why, in the gospel, 
every thing centers in Christ; why the one thing 
insisted on is faith in him. 

" Possessing Christ, I all possess — 
Wisdom, and strength, and righteousness, 
And holiness complete. 

This, then, is the one thing which concerns us. 
The inquiring sinner need not worry himself over 
the questions of original sin, predestination, elec- 
tion, effectual calling, regeneration, or any other 
speculative questions. Not that there is no truth 
in them. There is truth in them, and truth worth 
looking after, — but not when the soul is in peril 
and longing for salvation. Would a drowning man 
in mid-ocean spend his moments in speculations 
about the specific gravity of water and air, the 
philosophy of the gulf stream, or the laws of gravi- 
tation — or refuse to be saved until he had first set- 
tled it that it was according to the eternal purpose 
and predestination of God that he should be saved } 
Would he trifle with his life in vain reasonings to 



54 



TALKS TO BEEEA^^. 



reconcile Divine foreknowledge with the freedom 
of the human will, and argue that if God meant 
him to be saved, he would be; and if not, no 
earthly power could save him? No, no. He 
would look for the hand that could rescue him 
from drowning; and, if he saw it, would grasp it, 
and cling to it, until salvation from drowning was 
complete. He would take more fitting moments 
for such speculations, if, indeed, he should find 
any moments not more valuable for better uses. 
And why should the perishing sinner trifle away 
his opportunity for salvation in vain attempts to 
solve these questions ? He is guilty; he is dying; 
he is lost. Jesus comes in the gospel, and says, 
'^ I can save you." The only question that really 
concerns him is this one of the ability of Christ to 
save. Is he the Son of God ? Can he take away 
our sins ? Is he stronger than Death ? If so, 
trust him and obey his voice, and salvation is as- 
sured. 

We ask our readers to consult John xx. 30, 31; 
iii. 1 1-2 1 ; Luke xxiv. 44-49; Mark xvi. 15, 16; 
Matt, xxviii. 18-20; Acts ii. 14-41; iii. 12-26; viii. 
26-40; X. 34-48; xiii. 23-39; xvi. 13-34; xvii. 22-34; 
xxvi. 1-29; xxviii. 23-31; and see that the preach- 



THE GREAT GIFT. 55 

ing of the gospel is the preaching of Christ, and 
that the one great end sought is to bring sinners 
to trust in Christ, love him, and obey him. All 
other questions sink into nothingness in the pres- 
ence of this. 

In conclusion, let us remind our readers that 
the love of God, spoken of in our text, is a love of 
which all men are objects. He **so loved the 
world!' Eternal life is offered to all in those pre- 
cious words, '' that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life.'' 

Reader, God loves yoic! Whosoever means yoit! 
Will you open your heart to this precious love of 
God } Will you believe in Jesus t To refuse to 
believe in him is to perish. To believe in him is 
to seize the treasures of eternal life. Consider 
these things, and may the Lord give you an un- 
derstanding heart. 



SERMON VI. 

THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

" Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I depart ; for 
if I depart not, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I go, I will send 
him unto you. And when he is come, he will convict the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of 
righteousness, because ] go to my Father, and ye behold me no more ; of judg- 
ment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. I have yet many 
things to say unto you, but ye can not hear them now. Howbeit, when he, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth ; for he shall not 
speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak ; and he 
shall tell you the things to come. He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of 
mine, and shall tell it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; for 
this cause said I, that he receiveth of mine, and shall tell it unto you." — John 
xvi. 7-15. 

IT was needful that the Son of God, after per- 
fecting his personal mission on earth, should 
withdraw his presence from men, and return to the 
Father. His life, his death, and his resurrection, 
were once for all. To consummate the designs of 
this plan of redemption, it was necessary that not 
only this world, but all worlds, should be placed 
under his control. The reign of sin and the reign 

of grace alike extend in their influence to other 
(56) 



THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 57 

worlds, and the redemption of the human race re- 
quired the service and the control of the principal- 
ities and powers of other spheres, that to them 
might be made known, by the church, the manifold 
wisdom of God. The government of the universe 
was therefore transferred to the Son of Man, and 
humanity in association with divinity now sways 
the scepter of universal dominion. The God-man 
reigns. 

There is, perhaps, another reason why it was 
expedient that Jesus should go away. The de- 
signs of his reign are pre-eminently spiritual. His 
religion is spiritual ; it is designed to emancipate, 
purify, sanctify, and glorify the spirit of man, and 
lift him to spiritual dominion. It was desirable, 
therefore, not to enchain him to the visible and 
material, but, on the principle of faith, to bring 
him into fellowship with the invisible and spirit- 
ual. The visible Christ, therefore, gives place to 
the invisible Spirit, and man is led to walk by 
faith and not by sight. We only hint at what 
might form of itself an interesting sermon. 

It is apparent that if no more had been done 
for man after Jesus left the earth, the blessings of 
salvation could not have come to us. The very 



58 



TALKS TO BEEEAyS. 



knowledge of salvation must have perished. The 
Holy Spirit, therefore, was sent on a divine mis- 
sion, not in the stead of Christ, but on account of 
Christ, and in our behalf. The Spirit, equally with 
the Father and the Son, is divine — a divine per- 
sonality ; else we would not be required to be 
baptized into the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Spirit ;* for we can not sup- 
pose that we are to be baptized into the name of 
a mere influence, or of a mere creature of God. 

The Spirit was sent — 

I. As an illiLviinating Spirit. The mission of 
Jesus had to go to record. The great facts in the 
history of redemption had to be set forth with 
divine certainty and accuracy. The gospel had to 
be preached truthfully, without mixture of error, 
to the world. The message had to be adapted 
with divine skill to the capacities and wants of 
man. The conditions of salvation had to be made 
known with divine authority. The principles, and 
laws, and comforts, and hopes, and duties of Chris- 
tian life had to be revealed. This was not done by 
sending the Spirit to inspire every mind and make 



*Matt. xxviii. 19. 



THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



59 



a perfect revelation of these things immediately 
to every heart ; but by communicating the illumi- 
nating Spirit to chosen men, to lead t/ieni into all 
truth, that they might preach and teach these 
things to the world. Hence, said Jesus to his 
apostles, I will send the Paraclete — Advocate, the 
Spirit of truth — to you ; and when he is come to 
yon, he will convince the zvorld of sin. The illu- 
minating and convincing power of the Spirit was 
to be derived mediately to the world through the 
preaching and teaching of the apostles. Study 
the text carefully. 

2. As a demonstrating Spirit. '^ My speech and 
my preaching was not with enticing words of 
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit 
and of power, that your faith should not stand in 
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." * 
It will be seen at a glance that such claims as the 
apostles put forth, to reveal the whole counsel of 
God, and make known, authoritatively, the way 
of salvation to a perishing world, must be demon- 
strated to be valid and just by suitable accompa- 
niments of a divine embassy. A supernatural 

* I Cor. ii. 4, 5. 



6o TALKS TO BEREANS. 

claim must be sustained by supernatural evidence. 
It was part of the Spirit's mission, therefore, to 
"bear witness" to the apostles "by signs and won- 
ders, and divers miracles."* 

3. As the source of all needful gifts to the in- 
fant church, until the revelation of truth should 
be completed, and the weakness of infancy should 
be outgrown.f 

4. As a source of refreshment, comfort, and 
strength to Christians for all generations, to dwell 
in their hearts and shed the love of God abroad 
there, and to be to them, in the blessed and 
heavenly influence of the divine presence, an 
earnest, a foretaste of heaven itself J 

(i.) It will be seen, then, what great grace is 
shown to us in sending the Holy Spirit on this 
mission to our needy race. Without it, there 
would have been no revelation of Jesus as a Sav- 
iour — none but the most fragmentary and unsatis- 
factory traditionary knowledge of what he was and 
what he did for us. We are indebted to the Holy 
Spirit for all the truth concerning Jesus now in 



* Heb. ii. 4. t See Eph. iv. 7-16 ; i Cor. xii. 

X See Acts ii. 38; iii. 19; Rom. v. 5; viii. 5-17; 2 Cor. i. 22; 
Gal. iv. 6; Eph. iii. 16-19. 



THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 6 1 

our possession, for it has all been communicated 
through the inspirations of that Spirit in the 
hearts of the apostles, guiding them into all truth. 
So true is it, that ''no man can say that Jesus is 
Lord, but by the Holy Spirit."* 

(2.) This enlightening and convincing energy of 
the Spirit having been vouchsafed to the apostles 
in trust for the world, it is evident that if sinners 
are to be brought under the convicting and con- 
verting power of that Spirit, it must reach them 
througli the tncth ivliich these apostles have spoken. 
Take an example. Thousands of sinners were 
convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment on 
the day of Pentecost, after the resurrection and 
ascension of Jesus. How was it.^ The Spirit 
came to the apostles. The apostles spoke the 
truth. The people heard it. When they heard it, 
they were pricked in their hearts and cried out, 
"Men and brethren, what must we do.'^" Peter 
told them, '' Repent, and be baptized, every one of 
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission 
of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Spirit." " Then they that gladly received the word 

^ I Cor. xii, 3. 



62 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

were baptized, and the same day were added unto 
them about three thousand souls." Read Acts ii 
carefully. To expect, therefore, that the Spirit 
will directly enter the sinner's heart, and enlighten 
and convert him, and impart to him the evidence 
of pardon, is unauthorized ; for here, where the 
Spirit did come from heaven on purpose to con- 
vert sinners and -to lead them to pardon, he came 
not to them, but to the apostles, and tJifongli tlie 
%vords of the apostles put forth converting power 
and made known the terms of pardon. This will 
explain why, to be born of the Spirit,* we must 
be born of the word,! and why resisting the truth 
is resisting the Spirit whose truth it is.| 

(3.) It is worthy of note, too, that the Spirit 
%vas not to speak of liiuiself, but was to speak of 
Clirist. (See text.) Men are not to be converted, 
therefore, by theories of spiritual influence, nor by 
preaching about the Holy Spirit. Christ crucified 
is the power of God and the wisdom of God. § 
The work of the Spirit was to bring men to be- 
lieve in Christ. 



*John iii. 5. f i Pet. i. 23; Jas. i. 18. J Acts vii. 51-53. 
5 I Cor. i. 23, 24. 



THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 63 

(4.) The fcllozvship of the Spirit can only be 
realized in a fellow-spirit ; that is, we can have 
fellowship with righteousness, goodness, and holi- 
ness only when we come into a state and condi- 
tion of righteousness, goodness, and holiness. The 
unholy can not have fellowship with the holy, or 
the carnal with the spiritual. The blind have no 
enjoyment of visible beauties and grandeurs, nor 
the deaf of the harmonies of sound. Hence to 
enjoy the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we must 
abandon sin and be made pure in heart. This 
will explain why the Spirit reaches the sinner 
mediately, through the gospel, for his regeneration, 
but comes to dwell in his heart as a divine pres- 
ence, when he is made free from sin. ''Becattse 
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his 
Son into your hearts."* " The world can not re- 
ceive" this Spirit.f 

We have, thus far, been considering what God 
has done to save tts. We have glanced at the 
revelations of the grace of God in the work of the 
Father, in preparing the way during four thousand 
years, and in sending his Son to save us ; in the 



* Gal. iv. 6. t John xiv. 17. 



64 



TALKS TO BEREANS, 



work of the Son in his life, death, resurrection, 
ascension, and heavenly reign ; in the work of the 
Spirit in revealing and confirming the truth of the 
gospel, and establishing in the hearts of men the 
peace and love of God. 

All this is grace, wondrous and adorable grace ; 
so that if we are saved at all, we are saved by 
grace. 

We will proceed next to inquire what we must 
do to be saved. 



SERMON VII. 

THE HUxMAN SIDE. 

** Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " — Acts xvi. 30. 

HAVING answered the inquiry, What has 
God done to save us ? we come now to the 
second great question: What must we do to be 
saved ? 

Salvation is not mechanical. It is not arbitrary. 
It is not lifting the soul, by an arm of divine power, 
out of a certain state called a state of condemna- 
tion into another state called a state of justification, 
as if a change oi position could avail any thing, or 
as if the mere assertion of power on the part of 
God could essentially change a rational nature. 
It must be constantly remembered that the salva- 
tion of which we are treating is the salvation of 
rational and moral beings ; it is the deliverance of 
such beings from ignorance, corrupt desires and 
S (65) 



ee TALKS TO BEEEANS. 

practices, alienated affections, and guilt, and their 
entrance into knowledge, purity, righteousness, 
holiness, and forgiveness. In a word, it is salva- 
tion from sin — from the love of sin, the practice 
of sin, the guilt of sin, the alienations of sin, and 
the death which is the wages of sin. It can not 
be accomplished, therefore, without the introduc- 
tion of light into the benighted soul; nor without 
establishing convictions of truth in the heart; nor 
without enlisting the affections in behalf of new 
objects; nor without a transfer of confidence and 
love to a new authority. The sinner must be en- 
lightened, convinced, and persuaded. This in- 
volves the exercise of his own powers, since 
this enlightenment, conviction, and persuasion 
can only come through truth and love co n- 
municated to him, which he must learn, un- 
derstand, and appropriate. And while it is true 
that all the means requisite to accomplish this end 
are divine, and that we are dependent on the 
grace of God for the whole system of means and 
agencies necessary to recover the soul from apos- 
tasy, so that, without this grace, we must have 
perished; it is also true that unless we accept and 
app7vpriate these means and agencies, they are to 



THE HUMAN SIDE. 6/ 

us as though they had no existence, and we must in- 
evitably perish. The sun shines in vain for us if we 
open not our eyes to behold it. Light, air, earth, 
water — all means of life and enjoyment in nature 
which God has so bountifully supplied, will only 
sustain life and impart happiness as we make them 
our own by appropriation according to the laws 
that God has established. 

We, therefore, regard that theory which teaches 
that man is passive in regeneration as intrinsic- 
ally false, and most mischievous in its tendencies. 
If he is passive, he does not hear, or think, or 
love, or hate, or believe, or understand. Unless 
God overrides all the laws of man's intellectual 
and moral nature, and works a miracle equal to 
that which created the universe out of nothing, 
there is no thought, wish, love, or hate changed 
or influenced in such a regeneration; it is a mere 
dream, a phantasy, which the imaginative and 
excitable may identify with some psychological 
experience, and fancy that regeneration is theirs; 
but which others, less liable to sudden emotion, 
will wait for a whole life-time and fail to receive. 
On the other hand, if it is a miracle, then the sin- 
ner can take no step toward salvation until that 



68 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

miracle is wrought. Christ, the Church, the Gos- 
pel, are all vanities until that miracle takes place. 
The sinner can not help being what he is, and the 
most nonsensical of all questions is that of our 
text — for it might as well be supposed to come 
from a dead man, and might as well be answered 
to a dead man, if this doctrine of the sinner's pas- 
sivity is correct. 

But this question was asked, and was gravely 
entertained, and definitely answered by the apos- 
tles; thereby proving (i) that the sinner can do 
something to be saved; and (2) that there is some- 
thing to be done by him if he would be saved. 
He can do nothing to procure salvation — Jesus 
Christ has procured it for him. He can do noth- 
ing to merit salvation; he is guilty, and wretched, 
and lost; the grace of God alone is his hope. 
But when the grace of God brings salvation, he 
can take it; when Jesus presents the cup of salva- 
tion, he can accept it and drink of the waters of 
life. When the mercy of God invites him, he can 
come. When God speaks, he can hear. When 
God testifies, he can believe. When God 
stoops over him, in the person of Christ, with 
richest love and tenderest compassion, he can 



THE HUMAN SIDE. 69 

open his heart to receive that love. When the 
Spirit pours in on his benighted soul the^ beams of 
heavenly truth, and reveals sin and a Saviour, he 
can learn to hate the one and love the other. 
When the terms of salvation are made known, he 
can obey them. In a word, the Father originates, 
the Son reveals, the Spirit applies through apos- 
tolic ministry the saving power needed by us; but 
we appropriate it, each one for himself. The grace 
of God provides the feast of salvation, but the sin- 
ner must eat it, and thus make it his own. 

Nor is this a feast that has to be specially pro- 
vided for every sinner. It has been provided once 
for all. We need only to learn of it, and come 
and partake freely. 

It becomes us, then, to inquire anxiously, 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do.'^" But let 
us first have a distinct understanding of the ques- 
tion. 

1. It is not what God has done for us. That has 
been already considered. 

2. It is not what a patriarch or a Jew was re- 
quired to do. "The fullness of time'' has come. 
God, who spoke at sundry times and in divers par- 
cels in times past unto the fathers by the proph- 



70 



TALKS TO BEEEANS. 



ets, has now spoken by his Son; and the language 
from heaven is, *' Hear Him." 

3. It is not what Jesus told particular persons 
to do when he was here. He told a young man to 
keep the commandments of the law,* because the 
applicant was a Jew, and the Jewish law was yet 
in- force; and he further told him to go and sell all 
that he had, and give it to the poor, because he 
wished to reveal to him the real plague-spot in 
his nature. This was individual and special. He 
opened the gates of Paradise to the dying thief, 
because it was his prerogative on earth to forgive 
sins when, where, and how he pleased. But he is 
no longer here. The individual and special has 
given place to the universal; a system of salvation 
for all men has been established; a general act of 
amnesty has been passed; and the language now 
is, '* Whosoever will, let him take of the water of 
life freely."! 

Not until Jesus bowed his head on the cross, 
and said, '* It is finished," did the law lose its au- ' 
thority. Not until Jesus, after his resurrection, 
said, ^' All power in heaven and in earth is given 



*Markx. 19. t Rev. xxii. 17. 



THE II mi Ay SIDE. 



71 



to me,"* do we find a true starting-point for our 
inquiry. Not only was the old Testament prepar- 
atory, but the mission of John the Baptist, and 
the personal ministry of Jesus, were also prepara- 
tory. Much is said in the four gospels concerning 
salvation, but it is said in anticipation of a new 
order of things to be established after Jesus rose 
from the dead and ascended to heaven. 

We will next point out the persons who were 
divinely authorized to answer this question. 



*Matt. xxviii. 18. 



SERMON VIII. 

THE EMBASSADORS OF CHRIST. 

** Therefore for Christ are we embassadors, as though God were entreating 
by us : we pray on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God." — ii Cok. v. 20. 

THE v^oxdi presbiLS, both in classical and script- 
ural use, denotes an embassador, though 
primarily it means an old man, and its secondary 
meaning evidently grew out of the fact that old 
men were usually appointed to this responsible 
position. An embassador represents the majesty 
and the authority of the power that appoints him, 
and stands in its behalf and in its stead. In the 
absence of our Lord, the apostles are his embassa- 
dors, acting "in Christ's stead." The authority 
and power of Christ are on them, and that which 
they do as embassadors is simply Christ Jesus 
acting by them. He committed into their hands 
the word of reconciliation. They went out to a 

rebellious world, to entreat sinners to be reconciled 
(72) 



THE EMBASSADORS OF CHRIST. 



73 



to God, and to propound to them the terms of rec- 
onciHation. 

Some are disposed to exalt the mission of Christ 
against that of the apostles, reasoning that he was 
so much their superior in excellence and in wis- 
dom, that his words are entitled to the greater 
weight ; and, that from the four gospels, therefore, 
we can better learn the way of life than from the 
Acts of the Apostles. This is a mistaken view. 

1. It is a mistake to separate these missions, as 
if Christ were in one and not in the other. The 
truth is, that the mission of the apostles was the 
mission of Christ. It was the Christ working 
through them — the Spirit of Christ in them, and 
the authority of Christ upon them, that gave to 
their mission all its significance. As well argue 
that because a king is greater than his embas- 
sador, therefore his words are of more weight than 
the words of the embassador — whereas, the words of 
the latter are the words of the former, and derive 
their weight especially from the fact that they are 
such. The king speaks through the embassador. 

2. Each portion of the Scriptures is most val- 
uable for that for which it was specially designed. 
The design of the four gospels is to make us 



74 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

acquainted with the Christ, and with the evidences 
on which we are to believe in him.* For this 
purpose they are superior to any other scriptures. 
But it does not follow that they are superior for all 
purposes. To teach us how to come to Christ — 
to instruct us what we must do to be saved — the 
Acts are superior to the four gospels; for this 
book records especially the entreaties and instruc- 
tions of the chosen embassadors who were sent 
forth to reconcile the world to God. 

3. The personal work of Jesus was a prepara- 
tory work. He discussed the principles of his 
approaching reign ; and in his life, death, and 
resurrection, God laid the foundation of the spirit- 
ual temple.f But the apostles were, under Christ, 
the builders of the temple, and we must learn 
from them how v/e may build on this foundation, 
and be living stones in this temple.J 

4. The Holy Spirit was given to these men to 
''guide them into all truth," and to bring to their 
remembrance all that Jesus had said to them ; § so 
that in listening to them, we listen to Christ. 



^See John xx. 31 ; Luke i. 1-4. 1 1 Cor. iii. ii, compared 

with Isa. xxviii. 16. {Eph. ii. 19-22; I Peter ii. 4, 5. 

^ John xiv. 26; xvi. 13. 



THE EMBASSADORS OF CHBIST. 75 

Let us inquire now into the work committed to 
their hands. 

" Ye are they which have continued with me in 
my temptations. And I appoint unto you a king- 
dom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that 
ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, 
and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel."* Here these men are clothed with au- 
thority to rule in the kingdom of Christ. But as 
many refer this to the future, we will not pause 
to examine critically its leading terms, nor will we 
rely on it as proof, further than its obvious con- 
nection with other passages, yet to be quoted, may 
suggest itself to the reader. 

'' I will give unto thee the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatso- 
ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven."! This, although addressed to Peter as 
the foremost of the apostles, evidently was only 
applicable to him as the leading one of the twelve, 
as may be seen from the application of the same 
language to all the apostles in another paragraph. J 



*Luke xxii. 28-30. f Matt. xvi. 19. J Matt, xviii. 18. 



76 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

The verse immediately preceding speaks of the 
building of t/ie church of Christ, and the change 
of the phraseology from church to kingdom does 
not indicate a different institution, but marks en- 
trance into the kingdom as association with the 
church. This, then, clearly refers to apostolical 
authority to be exercised here^ in building the 
church of Christ, in propounding the terms of en- 
trance into the kingdom of heaven. From the 
apostle;^, therefore, we are to learn how we enter 
into the kingdom of heaven, how we may be incor- 
porated with the church of Christ. 

** He breathed on them, and saith unto them, 
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye 
remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever 
sins ye retain, they are retained.*'* This explains 
the binding and loosing spoken of in Matt. xvi. 19. 
If we would learn, then, of the remission of sins, 
we must learn of these men, after the Holy Spirit 
shall have been received by them. 

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 
All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of 



*John XX. 22, 23. 



THE E3IBASSAD0ES OF CHRIST. 



77 



the nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you : and, lo I am with you all 
the days, even unto the end of the world."* This 
is too definite to be mistaken. Exousiay power, 
is attthority to do a thing, and might to execute it. 
The authority of Moses has ceased ; Christ Jesus 
is now the lawgiver. About to leave the earth, 
he commissions the apostles to act in his stead, 
and endows them with authority to make disciples, 
to baptize, and to teach the great lessons of duty. 
This authority is to continue to the end of the 
present state of things, and is co-extensive with 
the race of man. If we would learn, then, how to 
become disciples of Jesus, we must learn from the 
apostles. If we would learn the will of God re- 
specting baptism, they must teach us. If we 
would be instructed in the whole range of duties 
belonging to Christian life, it must be through 
their teaching. Their ministry will complete the 
revelation of the will of God until the end of 
time. 



*Matt. xxviii. i8-20. 



78 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

But not only were they thus authorized — they 
received special directions as to w/im and w/iere 
they were to enter on their embassadorial duties. 
" Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be 
endued with power from on high."* '' But ye shall 
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come 
upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
and unto the uttermost part of the earth,"! Jeru- 
salem, then, was the place where they were to 
begin their ministrations. The time when they 
should begin was when the promised Spirit should 
descend, and endow them with power from on high 
and lead them into all truth. This brings us to 
Acts ii, to the history of the opening of the king- 
dom of heaven. 

Here are the apostles ; here is the descended 
Spirit endowing them with power from on high ; 
here is the preaching of the gospel by inspired 
apostles, convicting the world of sin, righteousness 
and judgment, and beseeching sinners to be recon- 
ciled to God ; here are convicted sinners crying 
out, *'\Vhat must we do.^" Here are the chosen 



* Luke xxiv. 49. f Acts i. 8. 



THE EMBASSADORS OF CHRIST. 79 

men, Peter at their head, with the keys of the 
kingdom, proclaiming, in the name of Jesus, the 
terms on which sins will be remitted ; here are 
thousands of believing penitents baptized into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Spirit; here is "the apostles' teaching" in 
which the converts continued. From this on, we 
can trace the progress of these embassadors in ful- 
filling their commission, through Judea, Samaria, 
and to Gentile lands. 

There remains but one more fact to be noted. 
Paul was not included in this commission. He 
received a special commission. *' I have appeared 
unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister 
and a witness, both of these things which thou 
hast seen, and of those things in the which I will 
appear unto thee ; delivering thee from the peo- 
ple, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send 
thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from dark- 
ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, 
and inheritance among them who are sanctified 
by faith that is in me."* It will be seen this 



■^Acts xxvi. 16-18. 



8o TALKS TO BEREANS, 

covers the same ground with the commission 
given to the eleven. 

It can not be doubted that we have learned the 
source to which to apply for an answer to the 
question, "What must I do to be saved?" The 
next sermon will present the reply. 



SERMON IX. 

THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. 

" Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever 
sins ye retain, they are retained." — ^John xx. 23, 

WE come now to consider the instances in 
which the question, What must I do to be 
saved? was asked of the apostles, and answered 
by them. 

I. The first is in Acts ii. Having already 
several times referred to the contents of this chap- 
ter, and asked the reader s attention thereto, we 
shall presume on his acquaintance with the facts, 
and avoid unnecessary details. Briefly : the apos- 
tles preached Christ — his Messiahship, his death, 
resurrection, ascension, and Lordship — to an im- 
mense audience of sinful hearers. These hearers 
were pricked in their hearts by what they heard, and 
cried out, " Men and brethren, what shall we do } " 

They were evidently convicted of sin and of right- 
6 (81) 



\ 



82 TALKS TO BEEEAyS. 

eousness — of the righteousness of Jesus of Naza- 
reth, whom God had raised from the dead and ex- 
alted on high a Prince and a Saviour ; and of their 
own awful sin in rejecting and condemning him. 
Their language indicates extreme anguish of soul, 
such as could only flow from a belief of the truth 
of what they had heard. This shows us how the 
Holy Spirit convicted the world of sin : it was 
through the truth preached by the apostles. Now 
comes the answer to their question : 

"Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in 
the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Spirit." 

Here observe : they were not told they could do 
nothing — that "doing is a deadly thing;" they 
were not invited to an altar, that Christians 
might pray for the Holy Spirit to come down and 
grant them the evidence of pardon ; nor were they 
required to " tell an experience," that Christians 
might judge as to the genuineness of their con- 
version and vote them admission to baptism. No: 
they were told to do two things: i. Repent. 2. 
Be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
remission of sins. " Then they that gladly re- 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS, 83 

ceived the word were baptized." They showed 
their repentance in a prompt and cheerful accept- 
ance of the terms, and were immediately baptized. 
Is it possible to doubt that the remission of sins 
was theirs ? Now, remember that Jesus said, " Re- 
pentance and remission of sins shall be preached 
in my name among all nations, beginning at Je- 
rusalem."* When we learn, therefore, how repent- 
ance and remission of sins were here made known, 
we learn just how the proclamation was to be 
made to all nations. 

As Peter was here with *'the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven," and did actually admit thousands 
into the kingdom, we can learn, in the light of the 
facts here presented, what Jesus meant when he 
said, " Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of 
God."t We have both water and Spirit here. 
The Spirit, through the ministry of the apostles, 
led them to faith and repentance, planting the 
seed of a new life in their souls ; and thus be- 
lieving and repenting, they were baptized — born 
of water — and entered into the kingdom of God. 



*Luke xxiv. 47. t John iii. 5. 



84 TALKS TO BEEEANS, 

To believe in Jesus, repent of sin, and be baptized 
in the name of Jesus Christ, is to be born of wa- 
ter and of the Spirit. 

2. The next case is that of Cornelius.* Al- 
though the question is not formally asked, it is 
evident that the burden of this man's cry to God 
was. Lord, what must I do? For when the angel 
assures him that his prayers have been heard, he 
adds, '^ Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, 
-whose surname is Peter; he shall tell thee what 
thou oughtest to do."t What he ought to do 
was, therefore, the burden of his inquiries. He 
was a devout, benevolent, pious man ; but he was 
in darkness as to his spiritual state, as many good 
and worthy people are. He had no clear knowl- 
edge of the will of God, and was groping in the 
dark as to what God required of him. That he 
knew something of the mission of Jesus, is evi- 
dent from verse 37 ; but how he, a Gentile, could 
avail himself of the benefits of that mission and 
be assured of salvation, he did not know. He had 
a heart to do any thing and be any thing that God 
might require ; but he was in darkness as to what 

*Acts X. -j-Acts X. 6. 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. 85 

God would have him do. There was needed, in 
this case, no conviction of sin, for he was already 
convicted ; nor persuasives to repentance, for he 
had already chosen to live righteously in the fear 
of God. True, the Jews spoke of it as '* repent- 
ance unto life;"* but this must be understood 
either as indicating that cJiange of mind which re- 
pentance literally imports, or it must be under- 
stood as spoken of Gentiles generally, and not of 
Cornelius and his family particularly. There was 
simply needed light as to the will of God and the 
way of salvation. Now, leaving out of view all that 
was extraordinary and miraculous in this instance, 
growing out of the fact that he was the first 
Gentile convert, and his case, therefore, required 
special attestations of the willingness of God to 
receive Gentiles into his kingdom ; let us look at 
the facts as they bear immediately on his salvation 
and that of his household, (i.) Peter is sent for; 
because he, as the leader among the apostles, pos- 
sessed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and 
must open to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. 
(2.) Peter preached the gospel to him and his 



•^Acts xi. 18. 



86 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

household, unfolding the mission of Christ to 
save, and winding up with this important declara- 
tion : *' To him give all the prophets witness, 
that through his name, whosoever believeth in 
him shall receive remission of sins/' While 
Peter spoke these words, the Holy Spirit de- 
scended on all that heard the word, in miraculous 
manifestations similar to those which were real- 
ized among the Jewish disciples at Jerusalem on 
the day of Pentecost ; '' for they heard them speak 
with tongues, and magnify God." Then Peter 
said, *' Can any man forbid water ; that these 
[Gentiles] should not be baptized, who have re- 
ceived the Holy Ghost as well as we [Jews] ? 
And he commanded them to be baptized in the 
name of the Lord." 

These two things, then, they did: i. They be- 
lieved in Jesus. 2. They were baptized in the 
name of the Lord. The promise fulfilled to them 
was, that '' through his name, whosoever believeth 
in him shall receive remission of sins." 

A word of caution may be needful here, owing 
to the use. sometimes made of the extraordinary 
manifestations connected with this case. Sinners 
are told that as these Gentile converts were bap- 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. 



87 



tized in the Holy Spirit before they received wa- 
ter-baptism, so all sinners should look for Spirit- 
baptism, that they may know they are converted. 
We ask our readers, therefore, to note, 

a. That this baptism in the Spirit was special, 
for a special purpose ; namely, that the Gentiles 
might have the same token of divine favor as the 
Jews, and be equally entitled to the blessings of 
the gospel.* 

b. That this descent of the Spirit did not con- 
vict them of sin, nor change their hearts — for this 
had already been done before Peter came. Cor- 
nelius ''feared God with all his house,^' was de- 
vout, gave much alms, and prayed to God con- 
stantly. Nor did the Spirit, by this visitation, 
impart faith to them ; for we read,f concerning 
this very case, that God had chosen that the Gen- 
tiles, by the mouth of Peter, ** should hear the 
wo7'd of the gospel and believe!' Nor did this 
baptism of the Spirit assure them of pardon ; for 
Peter had already informed them that this was re- 
ceived by believers through the name of Jesus ; and 
on this account he commanded them to be bap- 



^Read Acts xi. 1-18. f Acts xv. 7. 



88 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

tized in water — /;/ the name of the Lord, The de- 
scent of the Spirit was evidently a special visita- 
tion for the special purpose mentioned in chapter 
xi. The simple facts are — they believed ; they 
were baptized; they were numbered among the 
saved. Thus was "granted unto the Gentiles re- 
pentance unto life." 

3. The third instance is that of Saul of Tarsus. 
Of his commission, we have accounts in Acts xi, 
xxii, and xxvi. Let the reader examine these 
chapters carefully. 

Saul was an honest, upright, conscientious man 
before he became a Christian.'^ Touching the 
righteousness of the law, he was without blame 
among men, and he lived before God " in all good 
conscience." This proves that a man may be very 
sincere, and yet a great sinner — for he afterward con- 
fessed himself to have been " the chief of sinners ; " 
and that a man may be very moral, and yet be 
guilty before God through his ignorance and un- 
belief. Even ignorance is sometimes a great sin — 
where men might know the truth and will not. 
He was a bitter persecutor of Christians. He 



* See Acts xxiii. i ; Phil. iii. 6. 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. gg 

sa3^s afterward, he **did it ignorantly, in unbe- 
lief;"* but he does not excuse either the igno- 
rance or the unbelief. It is to be feared that the 
plea of ignorance and sincerity will prove a vain 
one on the part of very many who might have 
known the truth if they would. Yet this sort of 
sin is by no means so heinous as sin against light 
and knowledge; because the nature still retains 
honesty — an element without which there can be 
no worthy character. A man may be very ardent 
in error and wrong, simply because of the noble 
qualities of honesty and earnestness; and, if 
righted in his convictions, will prove a most 
serviceable Christian ; while the respectable sin- 
ner and the man of indifference, with weak con- 
victions and feeble purposes, never become emi- 
nent either for badness or goodness. 

The Lord knew the excellent material in the 
nature of this bold and earnest blasphemer and 
persecutor, and selected him as a " chosen vessel" 
for high and noble purposes. While he was on his 
way from Jerusalem to Damascus, on a bloody 
mission, ** breathing out threatenings and slaugh- 

* I Tim. i. 13. 



90 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



ter" against the disciples of Jesus, the Lord ap- 
peared to him in overpowering majesty, and ad- 
dressed him in the Hebrew tongue : '' Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou me?" He fell on 
the ground, overwhelmed with amazement, and 
replied, '' Who art thou. Lord ? " Again the voice 
spoke : ** I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," 
At once he saw the great mistake under which he 
had labored, and with the promptness and honesty 
which ever characterized him, he at once sur- 
rendered. An admirable example. Oh, how we 
higgle, and equivocate, and smother our best con- 
victions, often until the very capability to deal hon- 
estly with the truth is almost lost ! ** Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do ? " he cried in instant sub- 
mission. 

It is worthy of remark that this question was 
not answered, further than to direct him to Da- 
mascus, and there he should learn what to do. 
Oh, ye who tarry for visions, and pray to be con- 
verted as Saul was converted, by a sign from 
heaven, reflect that even Saul did not thus learn 
what to do to be saved! We saw, in the case of 
Cornelius, that the angel did not tell him what to 
do, but directed him to Peter. Here, the Lord 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. 



91 



himself does not tell, but directs the inquirer to 
Damascus, to learn from human lips what he must 
do to be saved. Why is this, but to guard us from 
seeking for signs and wonders ? But you ask, 
Why, then, did Jesus appear to him at all ? Read 
Acts xxvi. 16-18, and you will learn that — not to 
make him a Christian, but — to make him a minis- 
ter and a witness^ it was needful that the Lord 
should appear to him. He was to be an apostle, 
and a witness of the resurrection of Jesus ; and 
this he could not be unless he saw the Lord after 
his resurrection. Now, as you are not called to be 
a witness or an apostle, but simply a Christian, 
you do not need such a revelation. Saul went to 
Damascus, and was there three days and nights 
fasting and praying, in great anguish of soul. An- 
anias, specially commissioned, went to him and told 
him what he must do : 

*'And now, why tarriest thou.? Arise, and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the 
name of the Lord."* 

Immediately he arose, and was baptized, and 



** Acts xxii. 16. 



92 



TALKS TO BEEEAXS. 



renouncing his own righteousness as worthless, re- 
ceived the righteousness which is by faith.* 

Here is a clear case. Saul believed in Jesus 
Christ, turned away from his sins, and was bap- 
tized in the name of the Lord Jesus ; and his sins 
were washed away in the blood of the everlasting 
covenant. He was thus saved ** as a pattern to all 
who should hereafter believe on Jesus to life ever- 
lasting/'t 

4. We have yet another instance. The Philip- 
pian jailer, startled by the circumstances attending 
the imprisonment of Paul and Silas, cried out, 
" Sirs, what must I do to be saved .^ '* The answer 
was : 

'^ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved, and thy house."J 

The question here was not prompted by faith, 
but by alarm. He was an ignorant heathen. He 
was in all the blindness of heathenism. The ques- 
tion does not come after sermon, as on the day of 
Pentecost, as the fruit of intelligent faith and deep 
conviction ; but before sermon, excited by alarm on 



*Phil. iii. 7-9. tl Tim. i. 16. J Acts xvi. 31. 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. g^ 

account of the earthquake and the miracles he had 
seen. It is not asked by a Jew, Hke Saul, who 
knew the Jewish scriptures, and who, as soon as 
convinced of the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, 
was prepared at once to believe. Nor was it, as 
with Cornelius, the question of a devout worshiper 
of God, who already knew of the character and 
work of Jesus Christ. The answer, therefore, in 
this case, begins back of the answers we have al- 
ready quoted — it begins at the very beginning; for 
it is an answer to one who cries out of the depths 
of utter ignorance and guilt. Paul and Silas then 
preached the word of the Lord to him and to all 
that were in his house. They received the mes- 
sage, and were "baptized the same hour of the 
night,'^ and the jailer "rejoiced, believing in God 
with all his house." They heard the gospel — they 
believed — they repented — they were baptized — 
they rejoiced in God. 

Thus we have presented the facts as given to us 
in the Scriptures. It is a plain story ; it is de- 
finite ; it leaves no room for mistake or doubt. 
Our mistakes and doubts arise from the prejudices 
we bring with us to the examination of the Script- 



94 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



ures. It IS as plain as day that the sinner is re- 
quired to do three things in order to be saved, i. 
He must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. He 
must repent. 3. He must be baptized, calling on 
the name of the Lord. Then the word of the 
Lord, which endures forever, assures him of sal- 
vation. 

There is but one point of difficulty that remains 
to be noted. It is sometimes urged that these 
answers are not the same. But we will not insult 
the intelligence of our readers with an elaborate 
explanation ; a hint will suffice. It is plain that if 
a bdie-uer asks the question, he will not be told to 
believe, for that he has done already. A believing 
penitent will not, for the same reason, be told 
either to believe or repent. But an unbeliever will 
be told first of all to believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Thus the unbelieving jailer is told to be- 
lieve ; the believing Jews are told to repent and be 
baptized ; Saul, the believing penitent, is told to 
arise and be baptized. But they are all brought to 
the same landing-place. Of every one of them it 
could be said, when saved, that he had believed, re- 
pented, and been baptized, in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins. 



THE TERMS OF FORGIVENESS. 



95 



One word more : this is a present salvation of 
the soul from sin; it is not a final salvation in 
heaven. That shall be hereafter considered. 



SERMON X. 

FAITH. 

" Now faith is confidence in things hoped for, the conviction of things not 
seen." — Heb, xi. i. 

HAVING learned what are the conditions 
of salvation, we propose to speak of them 
more in detail. We devote this sermon to Faith, 

I. What is Faith ? 

Take up a Greek lexicon and turn to the word 
pistis. You will find the definitions, *' trust in 
others ; faith, especially faith or belief in a higher 
power ; generally, persuasion of a thing, confi- 
dence, assurance." Turn to pistetio, and you will 
find "to believe, trust in, put faith in, rely on a 
person or thing." The first of these terms is that 
which is translated faith, in the Scriptures ; the 
second is that which is generally translated to be- 
lieve; as, for instance, John v. 47: *'If you do not 

believe (pisteuseete) his writings, how can you be- 

(96) 



FAITH, 



97 



lieve {pisteiiseete) my words?" And John xx. 31: 
"But these are written that you might believe 
{pisteuseete) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God, and that believing {pisteuontes) you might 
have life through his name." 

Unless there is some special appropriation of 
this word in the Scriptures, we must conclude, 
from these definitions, that faith, as it respects 
facts or principles, is simply a belief or persuasion 
of them as true ; as it respects persons, confidence 
or trust in them, in the character, office, or work 
in which they are presented to us. We have in 
the New Testament two descriptions of faith, 
which will help us to understand the apostolic 
usage with respect to this word. Touching Abra- 
ham's faith, it is said : '' He staggered not at the 
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong 
in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully per- 
suaded that what he had promised he was able 
also to perform."* Here a fidl pe^'sicasion of tlie 
truth of God's promises is the description of strong 
faith. In the text we have chosen, faith is de- 
scribed as " the substance of things hoped for, the 



* Rom. iv. 20, 21. 

7 



98 



TALKS TO BEREASS. 



evidence of things not seen." Htipostasisy here 
rendered substance, is literally, that whereon any 
tJiing else stands, or is supported. Faith is there- 
fore the S2cbstans — that which stands nnder the 
things hoped for. Taken objectively, it is the 
basis or foundation of the things hoped for ; taken 
subjectively, it is confidence ; for that which stands 
under — the foundation — is that which gives confi- 
dence as to the things built upon it. Elenkos, 
translated evidence, taken objectively, means de- 
monsti'ation, proof ; taken subjectively, conviction, 
assti7^ance. We have, in the text, given the sub- 
jective sense of these terms, because it is the sub- 
jective sense we are after — that is, what faith is 
in ns, in our hearts, as a principle and a force in 
the soul. 

In the broad sense in which the apostle here 
defines faith, it is a persuasion or conviction con- 
cerning things not seen — not only as to the future 
things hoped for, but also as to the past. Were 
we shut up to^ the evidence of our senses, and 
capable only of being moved by w^hat we actually 
know, the sphere of influences bearing on us would 
be exceedingly circumscribed, and we must neces- 
sarily occupy a merely animal plane of life. Our 



FAITH. gg 

own experience alone could guide us ; and our 
instincts being much feebler than those of animals, 
we would necessarily have an inferior place even 
among animals. But we are capable of faith ; that 
is, we have faculties in the exercise of which we 
can believe that which we never saw, and hope for 
that which we have never realized, being persuaded 
of the truth concerning them by the evidence 
presented to us. We thus are enabled to appro- 
priate the experience of others — to incorporate 
other lives into our own, and enlarge immensely 
the sphere of influences going to make up life 
and character. Since God has appealed to this 
capacity of our nature, we are not only admitted 
to the realities of past ages as unfolded to us in 
history, but are admitted into the very heavens by 
faith, and are permitted to learn of and trust in the 
invisibilities of the spiritual universe, and thus en- 
abled to ''endure as seeing Him who is invisible." 
The past and the future are brought into the pres- 
ent, and the invisible becomes as if visible, by the 
power of believing. Hence, as the gospel deals 
with our spiritual nature and with spiritual reali- 
ties, it will be seen that faith — conviction con- 
cerning things unseen — must necessarily be the 



lOO TALKS TO BEREANS. 

ImpostasiSy the substance, the foundation, that which 
stands tender Christian character, Christian effort, 
Christian enjoyments. We need not pause here to 
show how important faith is, even in the affairs of 
the present Hfe — how the family would dissolve if 
faith were to be withdrawn from the hearts of its 
members ; how the State would crumble if the 
faith of man in man were destroyed ; how the 
wheels of commerce would be clogged if men 
could not deal with each other on the principle of 
faith ; how impossible education would be, and the 
growth of science and of literature, if men could 
not believe. We merely hint at this. A hint is 
enough to satisfy every thoughtful person that 
faith is the largest force that moves humanity in 
its grandest marches, its noblest achievements, its 
highest joys; and that it is not a mere arbitrary 
decree that has made it the basis of all that is 
good and noble and holy in religious life. It 
is in wise adaptation to the capacities and wants 
of our nature that faith has been ordained as the 
foundation and fountain of spiritual life and en- 
joyment. 

It will be evident at a glance, from what has 
been said, that the influence of faith over its pos- 



FAITH. lOi 

sessor will depend on the objects that faith rests 
on. If he puts confidence in that which is true 
and pure, he will come into fellowship with truth 
and purity ; if his faith rests on that which is false 
and corrupt, false and corrupting influences will 
pour in upon his own soul ; and according to his 
faith it will be unto him. Manliness, generosity, 
magnanimity, may all be nurtured in us by faith 
in that which is manly, generous, and magnani- 
mous. If we are so foolish as to put our trust in 
that which is mean, selfish, sensual, or profligate, 
just in proportion to the vigor and honesty of our 
faith, will we be transformed into the likeness of 
that in which we trust. Hence a second impor- 
tant inquiry is : 

II. What is the proper object of Faith? 

''Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."* 

"To him give all the prophets witness, that 
through his name whosoever believeth in him 
shall receive remission of sins.^f 

" God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." % 



*Acts xvi. 31. f Acts X. 43. t John iii. 16. 



I02 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

It is useless to multiply quotations. This is the 
uniform tenor of New Testament teaching. The 
object of our faith is the Son of God. We are 
asked to put our trust in a person. That person 
embodies in himself all- of wisdom, power, and 
goodness that we need. In him dwells all the full- 
ness of the Godhead bodily, and we are made 
complete in him who is the head of all principality 
and power.* He of God is made unto us wis- 
dom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemp- 
tion.! God is in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself J He is Son of Man, Son of God, 
Prince of Life, Captain of Salvation, Lord of all. 
He was dead, but is alive ; and liveth for evermore, 
and has the keys of death and of hades. || He 
died for our sins, and rose from the dead for our 
justification, and has become the author of eternal 
salvation to all them that obey him.§ He is now 
both Lord and Christ, possessing all power in 
heaven and in earth, and will reign until all enemies 
are put under his feet; and he is able to save unto 
the uttermost all that come to God by him.^ 



*CoL ii. 9, lo. f I Cor. i. 30. %2 Cor. v. 19. 

II Rev. i. 18. g I Cor. xv. 3, 4; Heb. v. 9. 

^Acts ii. 36; Matt, xxviii. 18; I Cor. xv. 25; Heb. vii. 25. 



FAITH. 



103 



We are asked to believe in him — to put our 
trust in him as able and willing to save, fully per- 
suaded that he is able to keep what we commit to 
him against the day of God.* Here let us guard 
against a common error. The faith that saves is 
not simply an assent to the truth concerning Jesus. 
If I am asked if I believe that A. B. is a physi- 
cian; I answer, Yes. But that assent to an ac- 
knowledged truth is noX, faith in the physician. If 
I am dangerously ill, and know that nothing but 
superior medical skill can save me from death, and 
I send for A. B., and say, *' I put my case into your 
hands ; I have confidence in your medical knowl- 
edge and skill; I trust my life in your keeping; 
whatever you command, I will obey; what you for- 
bid, shall be forbidden; what you prescribe, I will 
accept : then I give evidence that I have faith in 
him, being willing to intrust my life to his skill. So 
a man may assent, in a general way, to the prop- 
osition that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, 
without putting his trust in him as his Saviour. 
It is a solemn thing to put one's life, character, 
and destiny in the keeping of another, and trust, 
* — 

■5^2 Tim. i. 12. 



I04 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



for time and eternity, the power of that Being to 
save from death and hell. It ought to be very de- 
liberately done. When done intelligently, it is one 
of the sublimest acts the soul can ever perform. 
It is a great thing to be convinced of our helpless- 
ness and need of a Saviour; it is a greater thing to 
learn to trust in Jesus as that Saviour, and to make 
ourselves over to him in solemn covenant, to trust 
his power to save, and to do whatever he com- 
mands. This is the faith in Christ Jesus which 
the gospel enjoins. 

We are led here to notice another distinction of 
some importance. Faith is sometimes merely an 
ijitellectual exercise; but gospel faith has a moj^l 
character. If asked to believe certain historical 
facts which in nowise involve any thing of duty or 
of interest on my part, it is merely a question of 
evidence — which I examine and decide, intellectu- 
ally, according to the testimony. But if asked to 
believe a fact which involves my interests, and 
which, if accepted, must necessarily revolutionize 
my hopes and aims — as, for instance, that the orig- 
inal heir to an estate which, if he be not living, is 
rnine, is really alive and about to appear, to assert 
his right-^it is not simply a thing of the intellect. 



FAITH, 



105 



My /iea7't is concerned in it. My interests are in- 
volved in it. The truth may be unwelcome. To 
accept it may require me to yield up cherished, 
though unlawful, hopes and ambitions. I may be 
unwilling to do this. I may, therefore, through 
moral obliquity, pervert the testimony, or neglect 
it, or refuse to give it credence. If, in spite of the 
pleadings of self-interest, I honestly examine the 
testimony, and admit its real force, and accept the 
consequences, I perform an act of high moral bear- 
ing — I believe w^ith my heart. 

Before the late Franco-German \var, the evi- 
dence of the superior military force and preparation 
of Prussia w^as clear and abundant. The emperor 
of France and his counselors had all the means 
of knowing how unripe were their own military 
preparations compared with those of the Germans. 
As a simple question of fact, it was easy of de- 
cision. But the question involved their interests 
and their passions. They suffered themselves to 
be blinded by ambition and by hate, and their un- 
belief, so terribly disastrous in its consequences, 
was a moral obliquity. Honesty of heart would 
have preserved them from the mad enterprise 



I06 TALKS TO BEEEAXS. 

which so suddenly blotted a magnificent empire 
from the map of Europe, and humiliated a gallant 
nation in the very dust. 

Now the acceptance of Jesus involves grave 
moral consequences. It is revolutionary. It calls 
for the surrender of all sinful desires, the abandon- 
ment of all sinful practices, the sacrifice of all 
merely earthly and sensual desires and ambitions. 
It involves self-abnegation, humiliation, renuncia- 
tion of cherished hopes and desires, it may be, 
and the consecration of life to spiritual aims and 
a spiritual service. This may lead the heart to 
deal dishonestly with the truth; to avoid its clear- 
est light and pervert its meaning. The election 
of Christ as our Lord and Saviour is an election 
of our own lives to the service of truth and holi- 
ness. If, in the face of all this, I deal fairly with 
the truth concerning Jesus, and allow it to have its 
full force on my soul in producing faith, it is an 
action of the heart as well as of the head — a 
triumph over a low and narrow selfishness and 
over the pleadings of sinful desire, which stamps 
it as an act of moral excellence and grandeur. 
All this belongs to that act which the Scriptures 



FAITH, 107 

describe as believing with all the heart,^ This ex- 
plains why condemnation is attached to unbelief.f 
In a merely intellectual act we are necessarily 
governed by the preponderance of evidence, and 
can not help either our belief or unbelief; but in a 
moral act, where the heart is concerned in the re- 
sult, we may deal dishonestly with the truth, and 
our failure to believe is traced to our unwillingness 
to receive the light. It is treason to the truth 
that ails us. "How can ye believe," said Jesus, 
"who receive honor one of another, and seek not 
the honor that cometh from God only V % 

Let us say, in conclusion under this head, that a 
hearty reliance on Jesus, as the Christ, the Son of 
God, such as leads us to trust in him for salvation, 
and accept him as our Sovereign, renouncing all 
other trusts and sovereignties, and listening only 
to his voice of counsel and command, is the faith 
that saves. It is all we need to be concerned 
about. It is of very inferior importance how 
much or how little of truth there may be in theo- 
logical doctrines concerning original sin, divine 



*Actsviii. 37; Rom. x. 8-10. tMark xvi. 16; John iii. 18-21. 
JJohnv. 44. 



I08 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

foreknowledge, predestination, effectual calling, or 
final perseverance. If you should master them all 
theoretically, they can not save you; if you should 
remain forever ignorant of all these theories, you 
may still be a Christian. You know you are a sin- 
ner. You want to be released from your sins. 
You dread to meet God as you are, and greatly 
desire to be at peace with him. Is Jesus an all- 
sufficient Saviour.? That is the great question. 
Is he what he professed to be.'* Can you trust 
him — put your life and destiny in his hands } Are 
you ready to listen to his voice, and walk in his 
ways .'* If no, all the theology in the universe can 
not save you. If yes, it but needs that you sub- 
mit to his authority, and learn his will. 



SERMON XI. 

FAITH. 

*' These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the 
word with all readiness of mind, searching the Scriptures daily, whether these 
things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women 
which were Greeks, and of men not a few." — Acts xvii. ii, 12. 

OUR third inquiry is, 
III. How is faith obtained f 
To save our readers from confusion, we must 
attend to a text which is often misinterpreted. 
" For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and 
this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not 
of works, lest any man should boast."* It is 
hence taught that faith is the gift of God, and 
that no one can possess it until God bestows it. 
Sinners are, therefore, taught to pray to God for 
faith — to seek it at the altar until it shall please 
God to hear their prayer. But here is a great dif- 



*Eph. ii. 8, 9. 

(109) 



no TALKS TO BEE E ASS. 

ficulty. Without faith, the sinner can not pray ! 
How is he to get a start in the right direction ? 
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. Now, 
if the sinner is convinced that the unseen God 
will bestow faith upon him, if he asks in the name 
of Jesus, he already has faith ! And if he is not 
thus convinced, how can he pray at all? — for ''he 
that comes to God 7n2cst believe that he is, and that 
he is a rewarder af them that diligently seek him/' 
"Without faith it is impossible to please God."* 
'' How then shall they call on him in whom they 
have not believed ? and how shall they believe on 
him of whom they have not heard ? " f How then 
can an unbeliever pray for faith ? If this view of 
the text in Ephesians be correct, the sinner can do 
nothing but wait, prayerless and hopeless, until it 
pleases God to bestow the gift of faith. It is 
utterly useless to call on men to believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

But let us ask: Is it th^ faith, or the salvation, 
that is here said to be the gift of God } There is 
a grammatical reason for referring it to salvation 
and not to faith; but as we are attempting plain 



^Heb. xi. 6. tRoni- x. 14. 



FAITIL III 

things for plain people, we will seek a test more 
readily understood by all. Whatever this *^gift of 
God " is, there is one thing affirmed of it in the 
ninth verse; namely, that it is "not of works." 
Now, will any one charge the apostle with the fool- 
ishness of saying t\\?it faith is " not of works " 'i It 
is surely a folly of which we can not suspect the 
apostle. But if we understand him to say that 
the salvation is *' not of works," there is sense and 
fitness in it. Then the salvation, and not the 
faith, was the gift of God. Alford's note on the 
text is: *' And this (your salvation; your having 
been saved) not of yourselves : God's is the gift, 
viz., of your salvation." 

Another text which gives some trouble is found 
in Acts xiii. 48 : " As many as were ordained to 
eternal life, believed." We observe on this that 
Alford renders it, " As many as were disposed to 
eternal life, believed." In his note, he says : 
*'The meaning of this word disposed must be de- 
termined by the context. The Jews had ^judged 
themselves unworthy of eternal life;' the Gentiles, 
as many as were disposed to eternal life, believed. 
By whom so disposed, is not hej^e declared; nor 
need the word be in this place further particular- 



112 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

ized We know that it is God who worketh in 
us the will to believe, and that the preparation of 
the heart is of Him; but to find in this text pre- 
ordination to life asserted, is to force both the 
word and the context to a meaning which they 
do not contain. The word in the original is the 
same as in i Cor. xvi. 15, where it is said 
that the house of Stephanas ' have addicted thein- 
selves to the ministry of the saints;' and in Rom. 
xiii. I, where it is said that * the powers that 
be, are ordained of God ; ' in both of which 
places the agents are expressed, whereas here 
the word is used absolutely, without an agent 
expressed." 

This is very clear critical testimony from one 
who evidently sympathizes with the Calvinistic 
doctrine, but is too honest a critic to force a text 
into the service unjustly. We will hear another 
scholar on the same point : 

" As many as were disposed for eternal life, be- 
lieved ; for the word tetagmenos, which we here 
render 07'dainedy is used in this very book (ch. xx. 
13) to signify a man, not outwardly ordained, but 
inzvardly disposed, or one determined not by God, 
but by his own inclinations, to do such a thing; as 



FAITH. 113 

when it is said St. Paul went on foot from Assos, 
for so he was disposed!' * 

Let us say, further, that Bagster s Analytical 
Greek Lexicon gives the following definitions of 
tasso in New Testament use: "To arrange; to 
set, appoint, in a certain station (Luke vii. 8; 
Rom. xiii. i); to set^ devote, to a pursuit (i Cor. 
xvi. 15); to dispose, frame, for an object (Acts xiii. 
48); to arrange, appoint, place or time (Matt, xxvii. 
16; Acts xxiii. 23); to attest, assign (Acts xxii. 
10); to settle, decide (Acts xv. 2). 

Now, it is no difference whether we understand 
the text as affirming that God disposed them to 
seek eternal life, or that they themselves were so 
disposed — the one implies the other. We have 
merely intended to relieve the reader of the false 
impression that the text teaches that faith depends 
on a personal election to eternal life. If still any 
doubt hangs over the reader's mind as to the 
meaning of the text, he must settle that doubt in 
the light of other texts that are not at all doubtful; 
and to some of these we will point him. 

We select three texts, clear and unmistakable 
ones, to tell us how faith comes : 



* Dr. SchaefFer, in Lange's Acts. 

8 



114 



TALKS TO BEREAXS. 



"Peter rose up and said to them, Men and 
brethren, ye know that a good while ago God 
made choice among us that the Gentiles by my 
mouth should hear the zcord of the gospel and be- 
lieve!"^ 

This refers, as the intelligent reader will at once 
perceive, to the conversion of Cornelius • and his 
household. It is all the more important on that 
account; because on that occasion there was a 
supernatural outpouring of the Spirit, and many 
supposed that faith was imparted through that 
outpouring. Hence many look and pray for such 
an outpouring now, that sinners may be blessed 
with faith. But Peter declares that their faith did 
not result from that outpouring, but that the ap- 
pointment of God was that the Gentiles might, 
"by his mouth, hear the word of the gospel, and 
believe." Their faith came by hearing the word 
of God. 

Now consider the text at the head of this ser- 
mon. It was said of the Bereans; and to Bereans 
we are now talking. It says the Jews at Berea 
were " more noble " than the Thessalonian Jews. 

♦Acts XV. 7. 



FAITH. 



115 



At Thessalonica, instead, of listening honestly to 
the gospel and investigating its claims, they were 
"moved with envy," and **took unto them cer- 
tain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered 
a company, and set all the city in an uproar/' 
They were not only indisposed to hear and ex- 
amine, but they were determined not to hear, 
and to let none others hear, if they could pre- 
vent it. They were evidently not "disposed to 
eternal life," but "judged themselves unworthy" 
of it. The Bereans, on the contrary, "received 
the word with all readiness of mind.^' They gave 
the truth a fair hearing, disposed neither to accept 
nor reject blindly, but after faithful investigation. 
Hence they ^'searched the Scriptures" — the Jew- 
ish Scriptures, for the Christian Scriptures were 
not yet written — gave attentive and pains-taking 
diligence to investigate, to learn whether what 
they heard concerning the Christ, was so. How 
many complain that they can not believe, who 
never searched the Scriptures ! Some of the 
avowed opponents of revelation have confessed, 
and others have exhibited, their ignorance of that 
which they opposed. And how many who pro- 
fessed to search, have searched very partially and 



Il6 TALKS TO B ERE ANS, 

in a fragmentary way. But the Bereans "searched 
the Scriptures daily!' They gave unbroken atten- 
tion to the question, Hke one who searches for 
hidden treasure, determined to know the truth re- 
specting it. " Therefore many of them believed." 
Thus it is seen how faith comes. An honest pur- 
pose, a candid hearing, a diligent examination of 
the testimony, are the means of obtaining the faith 
which the gospel requires. 

"For Isaiah says. Lord, who hath believed our 
report.'^ So then faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God. . . . How shall they 
believe in him of whom they have not heard t "* 

This is so plain ^' that none by comment can it 
plainer make.'* It settles the question as to the 
means of obtaining faith, and it reveals the source 
of the failure to believe on the part of so many. 
Faith is the result of attention, honest attention, 
earnest attention, persevering attention, to the 
truth. Men fill their minds and hearts with the 
cares and ambitions of life, crowding out the 
claims of divine truth, and remaining for half a 
life-time ignorant of the word of God ; and with 



^Rom. X. i6, 17, 14. 



FAITH. 



117 



hearts thus preoccupied, minds thus beclouded, and 
the whole spiritual nature encrusted with the car- 
nal influences of time and sense, they nevertheless 
expect an hour's attention to a sermon, or an 
occasional devotion of a few spare evenings to 
religious meetings, to secure to them the treas- 
ure of faith in Christ. As well expect to reap 
the healthful influences of sunlight by spending 
an hour one day in seven in the open air, and 
hiding away in a cave the rest of the week. It 
can not be. It is at war with common sense 
and with the word of God. The mind can only 
possess knowledge as it appropriates it by atten- 
tion and careful study. The heart can only come 
under new influences as it withdraws from the 
old and opens itself to the new. Providence 
may break up the fallow-ground ; experience 
may mellow the soul and make it receptive of 
the truth ; but we can only receive the seed of 
the kingdom, which is the word of God, as we 
hear the word and understand it.* We must be 
content to part with all we have, if w^e would 
secure *' the pearl of great price." f 



*Matt. xiii. 23. t Matt. xiii. 45, 46. 



1 18 TALKS TO BEEEANS. 

Sometimes we are asked if the evidences of 
the truth of the Gospel are as clear and as 
strong as they might be. We answer, No. They 
might have been made entirely overwhelming. 
But they are clear and strong enough to reward 
honest search, and not so clear nor so strong but 
that the dishonest and the indifferent may neg- 
lect and reject them. They thus test the hon- 
esty and the earnestness of our hearts. None 
but the honest and earnest can become children 
of faith. 

Reader, do you desire to obtain faith in 
Christ ? Give heed to the word of God. Read 
and study the Scriptures, especially the New 
Testament. Withdraw your heart from other 
pursuits. Be earnest, as you would in examining 
a title to great estates, or in prosecuting a 
search for silver. Make it the great concern of 
your life. Think about it, talk about it, read and 
re-read, reflect on what you read, and bring home 
what you read to your own soul's needs ; and 
you will not only believe, but when you believe 
you will be sure that your faith stands not in the 
wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 



SERMON XII. 

REPENTANCE. 

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now commandeth all 
men every-where to repent : because he hath appointed a day in which he will 
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof 
he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the 
dead." — Acts xvii. 30, 31. 

IT is not the intention of the gospel to save men 
in their sins, but pvm their sins ; and that not 
merely as it relates to the guilt of sin, but its pol- 
lutio7t and dominio7i likewise. It may be well to 
repeat and emphasize a remark made in a former 
sermon — that the gospel is not an assertion of 
arbitrary authority, or a body of arbitrary enact- 
ments ; but a system of means and agencies 
divinely adapted to a great end — the regeneration 
of our nature. It is meant ^'to bring us to God" 
in desire, will, and action, that we may be like 
Him and enjoy His fellowship. Repentance is 
commanded and the means to effect it are or- 

(1-9) 



I20 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

dained, because without it we can not come to 
God. 

The Greek word translated repentance, indi- 
cates cJiange — conversion. It imports change of 
mind or dispositio7i, and that, too, for the better. 
We have, indeed, more than one Greek word trans- 
lated by this term repentance. One of them indi- 
cates a change, whether for better or worse. But 
that word which expresses the will of God con- 
cerning us, uniformly, in the New Testament, de- 
notes a change for the better. We are sometimes 
asked. What is the difference between faith and re- 
pentance, since they are both expressive of change } 
We reply that the idea of change is not contained 
in the word faith, although it usually implies a 
change ; it is rather expressive of rest, of trust, of 
simple confidence. But the word repentance is 
itself expressive of change. Faith respects that 
which is trite; repentance that which is right. 
Faith looks away from falsehood and error to the 
truth; repentance looks away from sin to right- 
eousness and holiness. It is ** repentance from 
dead works to serve the living God."* There is, 



■^ Heb. vi. I ; ix. 14. 



REPENTANCE, I2i 

perhaps, no better word than repentance to ex- 
press the change indicated by the original term. 
Were it not that it has become Hmited in its 
meaning, with many, to a mere emotion of sorrow, 
it would be entirely unexceptionable. It does not 
mean sorrow, for Paul expressly affirms, that 
" godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation 
not to be repented of;" and says to the Corin- 
thians: "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made 
sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance."* Sor- 
row, therefore, precedes repentance. Neither does 
it mean reformation, in the popular acceptation of 
that word ; far that refers to external acts, and is 
rather what the Scriptures mean by "bringing 
forth fruits meet for repentance." Paul tells us 
that he taught that men "should repent, and turn 
to God, and do works meet for repentance."! We 
have, then, this order: i. Sorrow; 2. Repentance; 
3. Turning to God ; 4. Doing works meet for re- 
pentance. A man may sorrow who never repents. 
So may a man reform from vicious ways who has 
never repented — circumstances may lead to a 
chano:e of conduct where there has been no sor- 



* 2 Cor. vii. 9, 10. ■}■ Acts xxvi. 20. 



122 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

row for sin and no turning to God. But when we 
speak of the whole process of change by which 
we are turned from the power of Satan unto God, 
it stands thus : When we are led to believe on the 
Lord Jesus and accept his teachings, we come to 
see sin and righteousness in the light of these 
teachings until the former becomes odious and 
hateful to us. This leads to contrition or godly 
sorrow in view of our past sinfulness. This, in 
turn, leads to repentance, or a change of mind or 
purpose as to the life we shall live. This leads us 
to turn to God in o^^edience to the gospel, and 
bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Repent- 
ance, then, springs from sorrow for sin, and ulti- 
mates in obedience to God. It is ceasing to sin, 
and yielding up the life in a holy purpose to walk 
in the ways of God. 

Let us look at two instances of repentance 
furnished to us in the Scriptures. 

I. T/ie Ninevites, Our Lord says, VThey re- 
pented at the preaching of Jonah."* The facts 
are briefly these: The inhabitants of Nineveh 
were exceedingly wicked. Jonah preached to 



*Matt. xii. 41. 



REPEJSTANCE. 



123 



them at God's command. They believed what 
Jonah preached,* and this wrought a change in 
all their convictions as to the life they were liv- 
ing. They clothed themselves in sackcloth, and 
fasted, and humbled themselves in the dust, f 
They turned every one from his evil way and 
from the violence that was in his hands. J It 
was therefore a sorrow for sin springing from 
their faith in God's message, and ripening into a 
purpose to break away from sin and obey God. 

2. The Prodigal Son. In a far country, he was 
led by his bitter experience to reflect on his folly 
in wandering from his father's house, and his mad- 
ness in wasting his substance. He sorrowed over 
his past course. He determined to change his 
course. He said: *'I will arise, and go to my 
father, and say unto him. Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and before thee, and am no more 
worthy to be called thy son." Here is sorrow, 
humility, and a purpose to live a new life. ''And 
he arose and went to his father." Here this pur- 
pose is carried into execution. His sorrow ripened 
into determination, and his determination into 



^Jon. iii. 5. t Jon. iii. 5, 6. J Jon. iii. 8, 10. 



124 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



action. This parable is presented by our Lord as 
an illustration of his sentiment, "There is joy in 
the presence of the angels over one sinner that 
repents." * 

It is scarcely possible to mistake what repent- 
ance means, in the light of these illustrations. 
We must come into such a conviction of the hate- 
fulness of sin, that we can renounce it, forsake it, 
and come with broken heart to God to live a life 
of obedience. It is not the renunciation of this 
or that particular vice, but the renunciation of sin 
itself, in all its forms and grades and hues, and 
the withdrawal of heart and life from fellowship 
with it. This may involve, in many cases, much 
of bitter and desperate struggle to overcome bad 
habits, and break away from bad associations ; but 
deeper down than bad habits, and back of all asso- 
ciations, is the renunciation of sin in the heart, in 
the deep and settled purpose to be the Lord's. It 
is a mighty thing to change the purpose of a life. 
It often involves much mental and spiritual con- 
flict. But the change once thoroughly and de- 
liberately made in the will, sustained by an en- 



* Luke XV. lo. 



BEPE2sTAXCE. 



125 



lightened judgment and an approving conscience, 
and inspired by a faith that rests on God's eternal 
truth, the mere conquest of habits and denial of 
former associations is a comparatively easy mat- 
ter. The real strife is in the sinner's own soul, 
between pride and humility ; between self-suffi- 
ciency and reliance on Christ for salvation ; be- 
tween selfish and carnal pleadings and the de- 
mands of an awakened conscience ; between the 
cunning sophistries of sin and the plain, stern, 
unbending utterances of truth and righteousness ; 
between the voice of the syren that lures to de- 
struction and the entreaties of mercy that would 
woo the soul to God. Gain the victory for truth 
and God in your own soul, until you can say, '' It 
is done. Henceforth, I will leave my sins, and 
love God, and walk in righteousness." Then you 
will have " sorrowed to repentance." Then the 
way is prepared to turn to God. 

We have not spoken in detail of these steps in 
the process with a view to lead the sinner to look 
for them to occur in distinct chronological succes- 
sion in his own experience. What is logically 
separate and distinct, may, chronologically, exhibit 
no distinction. It is not needful to watch these 



126 TALKS TO BEBEASS. 

changes, or to attempt to repent logically and sci- 
entifically. The great thing is to get away from 
the love and dominion of sin, and come to God in 
heart and life — to break off your sins by righteous- 
ness, and your iniquities by turning to the Lord — 
to bring to God the offering of a broken heart 
and a contrite spirit, that trembles at his word. 

The motives to repentance are: 

(i.) The goodness of God.* 

(2.) The tender and encouraging sympathy that 
heaven cherishes for the penitent, f 

(3.) The certainty of a righteous judgment in 
which the impenitent will be cast off forever from 
God. t 



* Rom. ii. 4, ILuke xv. 7, 10. J Acts x\^i. 31. Rom. ii. 5. 



SERMON XIII. 

COXFESSIOX. 



" The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart — that is, the word 
of faith which we preach :- that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." — Rom. x. 8-io. 



CONFESSION and baptism are so intimately 
associated in the Scriptures, that they ought 
to be treated together. But as we desire to make 
these matters as plain as possible, we prefer to treat 

of confession in a separate sermon, merely calling 
attention to the fact that in apostolic usage there 
is so close a connection of the two, that whenever 
confession is spoken of, it always implies baptism, 
and whenever baptism is spoken of, it always im- 
plies confession. 

While religion is, in the first instance, a strictly 
personal thing — a matter between the soul and 

its Redeemer — and the obligation to submit to 

(127) 



128 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

Christ would be binding on one if he were the 
only sinner in the world, or if all but himself re- 
jected it ; it is yet true that it is not meant to 
confine its influence to the individual soul. No 
one is at liberty to confine the fact of his faith 
within himself; neither can he choose his own 
way of making it known to others. What he be- 
lieves with the heart he must confess with the 
mouth. If no reason could be suggested for this, 
it would still be obligatory, for it is expressly en- 
joined as a part of that '^word of faith" which the 
apostles preached. The text is clear, positive, 
and unmistakable. But there are good reasons 
wiiy a confession of faith should be required. 

I. It is due to our Lord and Saviour that we 
should confess him before men. He is our best 
friend. He is seeking our highest good. He ac- 
cepted a very sorrowful and suffering lot that he 
might save us. In accomplishing this most phil- 
anthropic work he has met and still meets with 
contradiction, denial, and bitter opposition. The 
powers of darkness are leagued against him, with 
wicked men who hate his name and his doctrine. 
A fierce controversy rages over the question of his 
claims to divinity and sovereignty. His name is 



CONFESSION. 



129 



blasphemed, his claims are denied, his teaching 
is opposed, his church is persecuted. It is a con- 
troversy involving all the dearest interests of our 
nature. Neutrality in such a strife is impossible ; 
and if it were possible, would be most dishonor- 
able. We owe it to Him, therefore, when con- 
vinced of his Messiahship, to avow it openly, and 
place ourselves on the side of his advocates, that 
whatever influence we possess may tell certainly 
and directly in his behalf " He that is not for 
me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with 
me scattereth abroad/* 

2. It is due to the church of Christ. The 
church needs, and has a right to demand, the 
co-operation of every soul that accepts the teach- 
ings she has in trust. In entering into any asso- 
ciation, it is right that we should give in our 
adhesion to that which is characteristic of the 
association, and especially to that which is essen- 
tial to its life. Every society is supposed to be 
based on some principle which is vital to its char- 
acter and aims, and it requires no argument to 
show the propriety and necessity of conditioning 
membership on a frank and hearty avowal of such 
principle, and of a purpose to live and labor in 
9 



I30 



TALKS TO BEEEASS. 



harmony with it. Now that w^hich is vital to the 
church of Christ is, the divinity of its Founder, 
and his sovereignty as the Christ of God. On 
this the church is built.* Out of this grows every 
obligation of her membership, every duty, every 
hope, every motive to Christian life. No one has 
a right to membership in this brotherhood who 
does not accept the divinity of Jesus as the Son 
of God, and his Messiahship as anointed of God 
to redeem and govern us. No one who does be- 
lieve this can rightfully refuse or neglect to take a 
place in the church of Christ. 

3. It is due to an unbelieving and perishing 
world. Whatever there is in the faith- of Christ 
that is precious to us, has the same intrinsic value 
for all others who need salvation. It is the least 
we can do to give freely to others what we have 
freely received. It is treason against human na- 
ture to withhold that from the world which we are 
convinced is essential to its honor and happiness. 
Indeed, we are false to the noblest impulses of our 
own souls in withholding it, for it is among the 
first and most powerful desires of a soul that 



*See Matt. xvi. 13-20; i Cor. iii. 11. 



CGXFESSJON. I^I 

learns to believe in the Christ, that all others should 
be delivered from the snares out of which it has 
escaped, and share with it the precious treasures 
of the grace of God. 

Now will I tell to sinners round 
What a dear Saviour I have found; 
I'll point to his redeeming blood, 
And say, " Behold the way to God." 

4. It is especially due to one's self, for the deliv- 
erance of his own soul from thrall and danger. 
We are not safe until we have committed ourselves 
openly, unreservedly, and irrevocably to Christ 
and his cause. The influences of sin are very 
subtle, and at times its assaults are powerful and 
almost overwhelming. There are crises in life 
when, if not committed openly to truth and right- 
eousness, so that we can not honorably yield, that 
very fact will decide the conflict, and decide it the 
wrong way. We need to surround ourselves with 
such influences as shall compel us to hold on to 
the truth against all odds. We need to know that 
heaven and earth are looking on, and that there is 
no retreat possible — not even a momentary re- 
treat — from the post of honor and of danger. 

In every point of view, therefore, it it is wise to 



132 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

require of the believer a public confession of his 
faith in Christ. 

Let us now point out that the confession re- 
quired is simply a confession of faith in Jesus as 
the Christ, the Son of God. We are not required 
to avow faith in the church, faith in human leaders, 
faith in human creeds, or faith in our own religious 
experience. We look away from all else to Jesus 
the Author and Finisher of the faith. Acts viii, 
36, 37, gives us the simple and beautiful confes- 
sion of faith which was made in primitive times. 
We are aware that the genuineness of this text is 
held in doubt by many critics, and we would not 
press it beyond its just claims to confidence ; but 
it only expresses in the most definite form what is 
implied or expressed throughout the New Testa- 
ment.* 



^See John xx. 30, 31 ; Matt. xvi. 16-18; I Tim. vi. 12-14; 
Matt. X. 32, ^2,. 



SERMON XIV. 

BAPTISM. 

" And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me 
in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, make disciples of all nations, bap- 
tizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you. And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 
Amen."— Matt, xxviii. 18-20. 

THE changes from the common version which 
we have introduced into the text, are now 
generally admitted to be necessary. The teaching 
of verse 19, in the common version, is not the 
teaching of verse 20. It is another word and has 
a different meaning. It imports to make dis- 
ciples — to persuade ignorant and sinful men to 
leave their sins and come into the school of Christ, 
where they may be taught all things that relate to 
a new life and destiny. This discipling was done 
by preachings rather than teaching. Hence, in 
Mark,* in place of '' make disciples of all nations," 



■j-Mark xvi. 15. 



134 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

we have *' Go into all the world, and pr^each the 
gospel to every creature'' — the latter text express- 
ing the means, the former the result. The order 
in which the duties of the commission stand, tak- 
ing Matthew and Mark together, is : i. Preach 
the gospel, that men, believing it, may be per- 
suaded to put themselves under the guidance of 
Jesus, the Christ. 2. Baptize those who believe, 
into the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Spirit. 3. Teach those who have thus en- 
tered the school of Christ, all that pertains to 
Christian life. 

Into the name, and not /;/ the name, is now 
almost universally admitted to be the proper ren- 
dering of eis in this text. 

We propose to treat of baptism in the light 
of Scripture teaching. We are writing for the 
masses, and desire to guide them to safe conclu- 
sions with as little learned talk and criticism as 
possible. 

I. Baptism, in the text, rests on the authority 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. ^* All power in heaven 
and in earth is given unto me. Therefore go ye, 
make disciples, baptizing them,'*, etc. It is not a 
human device, a church expedient, or a mere mode 



BAPTISM, 



135 



of obeying a divine command ; but is itself a divine 
ordinance. Not our pleasure, therefore, nor our 
views of propriety, nor our tastes, are to be 
consulted ; but the divine will. Whatever bap- 
tism is, as enjoined by our Lord, that we are 
to accept. 

2. It is obligatory on all who would come under 
the authority of the Lord Jesus. It was not or- 
dained for a particular people or age, but for all 
time, and for all who would become the disciples 
of Christ. 

3. It is initiatory. It is designed to bring its 
subjects into new relations to Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit, and, of course, into new relations to 
the whole spiritual universe. This is evidently 
the force of into in the text. Baptism must, there- 
fore, be an act of faith. Its subject must be a be- 
liever — since no mere physical act can accomplish 
a spiritual change. If the baptism of an infant 
can bring it into new spiritual relationship to 
God, without will, desire, or consciousness, on its 
own part, there must be a miracle wrought in bap- 
tism — which is what the adherents of baptismal 
regeneration affirm. This, however, is destitute 
of Scriptural proof. But where the subject of bap- 



136 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



tism is a believer in Christ, purposing in his heart 
to abandon sin and lead a holy life, and his bap- 
tism expresses that faith and purpose, there can 
fitly be associated with it a change of relationship. 
It is the institution in obedience to which he 
passes out of the world into the church — out of 
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of 
God's dear Son. Hence baptism — that is be- 
liever's baptism — is spoken of by our Lord him- 
self as a birth — birth being but a change of state 
to a living being, in which it passes into new con- 
ditions of life and development. "Except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not 
enter into the kindom of God."* 

As an act of initiation, baptism has peculiar 
significance. It is once for all. All the coming 
life is in it, in desire and in purpose. It ought, 
therefore, to be an act of intelligence, of delibera- 
tion, and of cheerful and solemn voluntariness. 
We can not go back of it without dishonor. All 
that it expresses, in profession, we are to seek all 
life-long to fulfill. It is a solemn separation from 
an old to a new life, and an acceptance of obliga- 

* John iii. 5. 



BAPTISM. 



137 



tions which can never be fully discharged until 
death releases us from probation. To a believer, it 
will be seen at a glance, it may have all this signifi- 
cance ; to the unbeliever, or the infant incapable 
of belief, it can have no such import. 

Rites of initiation are generally symbolical. 
They are meant to symbolize the prominent feat- 
ures of the life to which they introduce us. We 
may expect to find this true in respect to this 
ordinance ; but if true, our present text does not 
indicate it. 

4. It is saving. This is implied in the initiation 
into new spiritual relations to the Godhead. It is 
plainly expressed in the parallel passage in Mark : 
" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved!' 
What this salvation is, may be gathered from the 
corresponding text in Luke:* *' Repentance and 
remission of sins shall be preached in his name, 
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.'* It is 
salvation from sin. He who believes in Jesus, re- 
pents of his sins, and is baptized into the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit, is saved alike from the love, the guilt, and 



* Luke xxiv. 47. 



138 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

the dominion of sin — is dead to sin and alive to 
God. He is not yet saved from the power of 
death. His salvation from the grave and his en- 
trance on eternal life, depend on his faithful con-- 
tinuance to the end of life in well-doing.* Thus 
he attains to glory, honor, and immortality. 

We pass to another text : 

** Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in 
the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy 

Spirit." t 

'^Then they that gladly received the word were 

baptized, and the same day there were added to 

them about three thousand souls."J 

1. Here baptism is joined with repentance, as in 
Mark it was joined with faith — showing that in 
making disciples, the object in preaching the gos- 
pel was to lead men to believe and repent, that 
they might thus be prepared for initiation into the 
school of Christ. 

2. Baptism is not only administered into the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
but also in or upon the name of Jesus Christ ; as 



^Rom. ii. 7; 2 Pet. i. 5-II. t Acts ii. 38. J Acts ii. 41. 



BAPTISM. 139 

he is Lord of all, and it is by his authority we are 
baptized. 

3. Baptism is ''for the remission of sins." This 
agrees to ''shall be saved" in Mark xvi. 16. Vari- 
ous desperate attempts have been made to break 
the force of this language. But it is to be 
observed : 

(i.) The concurrent testimony of criticism, of 
all ages and all parties, with few exceptions, is in 
favor of the ordinary meaning of the words em- 
ployed. 

(2.) The opposition to this interpretation is 
marked by so much contradiction, and its various 
forms have been so ephemeral in character, as to 
destroy its force. 

(3.) The text is a reply to a question; "Men 
and brethren, what shall we do r That is, as all 
agree, What shall we do to be saved? They were 
convicted of sin. They were yet unpardoned. 
Their question is an appeal for mercy. The an- 
swer tells them what to do to be saved. It tells 
them two things to be done: (i) Repent; (2) Be 
baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ. If the 
phrase "for the remission. of sins" were left out 
entirely, the meaning is not altered. Clearly, 



140 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



then, they had no assurance of the remission of 
sins until, repenting, they were baptized in the 
name of Jesus Christ. 

4. Baptism was obHgatory on all, " Be bap- 
tized, every one of you!' There was no escape 
from this. 

5. ''They that gladly received the word were 
baptized'^ — only they. Infants could not gladly 
receive the word ; infants could not repent ; there- 
fore infants were not baptized. 

6. Repentance and remission of sins shall be 
preached, in his name, amo7ig all nations^ beginning 
at Jerusalem." Then we have here the inspired 
and divinely authorized method of preaching re- 
pentance and remission of sins, and can learn 
here just how we are to come into the enjoyment 
of forgiveness. 

** But when they believed Philip preaching the 
things concerning the kingdom of God and the 
name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both 
men and women." * 

This relates to Samaritans — a people with whom 
the Jews had no dealings ; but the love of Christ 



"^Acts viii. 12. 



BAPTISM. 141 

annihilates old prejudices and selfish passions, and 
the Samaritans come into the kingdom on the 
same terms as the Jews. There is no change in 
the terms to meet their prejudices or to justify 
Jewish exclusiveness. 

1. Only those who believed were baptized. 

2. The limitation "both men and women" is 
worthy of note. Had infants been baptized, this 
language could not have been used with propriety. 
See Matt. xiv. 21 : "And -they that had eaten were 
about five thousand men, beside women and chil- 
dren!^ 

3. From verse 16 we learn that they were bap- 
tized "in the name of the Lord Jesus." This 
shows that it was the same baptism to which the 
Jews submitted — the baptism authorized in the 
commission given to the apostles. 

"And as they went on their way, they came to 
a certain water ; and the eunuch said, See, here is 
water, what doth hinder me to be baptized } And 
Philip said. If thou believest with all thine heart, 
thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe 
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he 
commanded the chariot to stand still. And they 
went down both into the water, both Philip and 



142 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



the eunuch ; and he baptized him. And when 
they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of 
the Lord caught away PhiHp, that the eunuch saw 
him no more ; and he went on his way rejoicing." * 
This is a deeply interesting narrative, and throws 
new Hght on the subject of inquiry. We have not, 
up to this time, received a hint as to what the par- 
ticular act called baptism is. We begin to learn 
something about it here. But let us attend to the 
facts in their order. 

1. Philip '' preached Jesus " to the Ethiopian — 
nothing but Jesus ; and from the scope of his text 
in Isa. liii. we may well conclude that the sorrows 
and toils of the suffering Son of God, his death 
for our trasgressions, his resurrection from the 
dead, and his power to save from sin and death, 
entered into the discourse. 

2. The application for baptism was voluntary on 
the part of his auditor. Therefore, in preaching 
Jesus to him, Philip must have told him about bap- 
tism, or he would have known nothing about it. 
We can not, then, preach Jesus, according to prim- 



* Acts viii. 36-40. 



BAPTISM, 



143 



itive usage, without telling about baptism. We 
can not reach Christ's promise '' shall be saved," 
without baptism. If baptism is '' for remission of 
sins" in the name of Jesus Christ, we can not 
fully make known the salvation of Christ without 
making this known. 

3. Conversion reaches the heart. ** If thou be- 
lievest wzf/i all thine hearty thou mayest be bap- 
tized." This confirms what has been already noted, 
that baptism is not a mere external act, but an act 
of faith — an act springing from a heart subdued to 
Christ. It could not otherwise introduce us into 
spiritual relations. 

4. The faith that saves is here expressed. "I 
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." It 
is not faith in a set of doctrines, but faith in a per- 
sonal Saviour — a divine Redeemer, able to save from 
sin and death. 

5. His baptism was immediate. There was no 
delay after his faith was confessed. No " Chris- 
tian experience" was required; no subscription to 
human Articles of Faith. No church was required 
to vote on his fitness for baptism. No inquiry 
was made into his former belief, or his orthodoxy 



144 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



or heterodoxy as to prevalent theological opinions. 
His voluntary avowal of faith in the Son of God 
was all-sufficient. If right here, all wrongs would 
soon be righted. Christ in the heart, the center 
of trust, and love, and hope, expels all that is false 
and attracts all that is true. 

6. Baptism was in water. They went both down 
into the water. They came both up out of the 
water. In the water the baptism took place. 
Philip performed it. The Ethiopian received it. 
This is an advance on the knowledge gained from 
former texts. In baptism the subject yields him- 
self into the hands of an administrator, and the 
obedience is rendered in the water. 

7, The baptized believer " went on his way re- 
joicing." Well he might. He had found the all- 
sufficient Saviour, in whom every want of his soul 
was met. He had accepted his salvation *' with all 
his heart." " He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved." He did believe ; he was baptized ; 
the promise " shall be saved," was now /its by per- 
sonal appropriation ; his sins were pardoned ; the 
Holy Spirit was sent forth into his heart, crying 
Abba, Father ; he went on his way possessing the 



BAPTISM, 145 

pearl of great price, and rejoicing as one that findeth 
great spoil. 

We must devote another sermon to the remain- 
ing texts on baptism. 



10 



SERMON XV. 

BAPTISM. 

WE continue our examination of Scripture 
teaching on this subject : 
"And on the Sabbath we went out of the city 
by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made ; 
and we sat down and spake unto the women which 
resorted thither. And a certain woman named 
Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, 
which worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the 
Lord opened that she attended unto the things 
which were spoken of Paul. And when she was 
baptized, and her household, she besought us, say 
ing. If ye have judged me to be faithful to the 
Lord, come into my house and abide there." * 

But little needs to be said here in the way of 
comment. 



* Acts xvi. 13-15. 

(146) 



BAPTISM. 



147 



1. Lydia was a worshiper of God, and her house- 
hold were evidently trained in the knowledge of 
the Jewish Scriptures. 

2. The discourse of Paul and his associates re- 
sulted in convincing them of the truth concerning 
the Christ. 

3. They were immediately baptized. 

From the fact that a ''household" is mentioned 
here, an inference is drawn that there must have 
been infants baptized in this instance. But this 
does not necessarily follow. In I Cor. i. 16, men- 
tion is made that Paul baptized '' the household of 
Stephanas." In the last chapter of the same 
epistle (verse 15) this same household is spoken 
of as having '' addicted themselves to the ministry 
of the saints." Now one of two things is true. 
Either (i) all the members of this household were 
old enough to engage in this ministry, and there- 
fore capable of believing ; or (2) if any were too 
young for this ministry, they are not taken into 
the account, and the household addicting them- 
selves to the ministry of the saints, means all the 
members of the household capable of such minis- 
try. To argue that because a household is men- 
tioned, therefore infants ministered to the saints, 



148 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

will be seen at once to be absurd ; yet it is not a 
whit more absurd than the argument that infants 
were baptized because households were baptized. 
In the latter case as in the former, either the whole 
household were believers, or the term is used only 
in reference to such as were capable of believing. 
Let this suffice in regard to the matter of house- 
hold baptisms. 

In this instance, however, the inference is es- 
pecially feeble ; for, 

(i.) It is not known that Lydia was married. 

(2.) If married, there is no evidence that she was 
the mother of children. 

(3.) If the mother of children, it remains to be 
proved that any of them were so young as to be 
incapable of believing. 

(4.) If any such belonged to her, it is not in evi- 
dence that they were with her. She was absent 
from home. She was traveling on business. Her 
household would properly consist of such as she 
had employed to assist her in the sale of her mer- 
chandise. 

*' And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, 
and to all that were in his house. And he took 
them the same hour of the night, and washed their 



BAPTISM, 149 

Stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straight- 
way. And when he had brought them into his 
house, he set meat' before them, and rejoiced, be- 
lieving in God, with all his house." * 

This is the case of the Philippian jailer and his 
household. 

1. Paul and Silas preached to them the word of 
the Lord. 

2. They all believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

3. They were all baptized. 

Attempts have been made to show that they 
could not have been immersed ; but this is mere 
inference, and very unsatisfactory inference too. 
For 

(i.) The prisoners were brought out of the prison 
before the preaching, and addressed the family in 
the house (ver. 29-32). 

(2.) He again brought them into his house after 
the baptism (ver. 34). 

They therefore went out to be baptized ; no dif- 
ference whether to a tank in the prison inclos- 
ure or to the river. Whatever baptism means, 
it was fulfilled in their case. If it was immersion, 



* Acts xvi. 32-34. 



ISO 



TALKS TO BEREANS. 



they could have gone to the river Gangas, if neces- 
sary ; or conveniences for it may have been found 
in the bathing-place within the prison walls. 

" And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, 
believed in the Lord with all his house ; and many 
of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were 
baptized." * 

1. Here is another instance of a household of 
believers. 

2. The order observed in this, as in all the cases 
recorded, is that of the commission given to the 
apostles. I. The Gospel is preached. 2. Hear- 
ing results in faith. 3. The believers are all bap- 
tized. 

"And now, why tarriest thou? arise, and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the 
name of the Lord." f 

This is the language of Ananias to Saul of 
Tarsus. It is not necessary, after what was said 
in a former sermon on Saul's conversion, to go 
again into details. We simply group the facts 
presented in the different narratives. 

I. Saul was led to believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 



* Acts xviii. 8. 



BAPTISM, 



151 



2. He was brought to repentance, so that he 
instantly abandoned his course of Hfe, and became 
at once submissive to the will of Jesus. 

3. He remained three days and nights in an 
anxious and repentant state of mind, neither eat- 
ing nor drinking, but crying to God, evidently 
confessing his sins and craving to know the way 
of life. 

4. Ananias came to him, restored his sight, 
and instructed him what to do, in the language 
of the text we have quoted. 

5. He immediately arose and was baptized. 
When we read Paul's teaching of justification 

by faith, as in the epistle to the Romans, or in 
Phil, iii : 7-9, we may be assured that he does not 
treat of faith apart from that acceptance of Christ 
in baptism to which faith leads ; for it was in 
baptism that his own faith laid hold of Christ, 
and that he rejoiced in the assurance of the for- 
giveness of sins. 

*' Know ye not that so many of us as were bap- 
tized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his 
death .-^ Therefore we are buried with him by 
baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised 



152 TALKS TO BEEEAXS. 

up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
even so we also should walk in newness of life/'* 

" Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye 
are risen with him, through the faith of the opera- 
tion of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 
And you. being dead in your sins and the uncir- 
cumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened to- 
gether with him, having forgiven you all tres- 
passes." t 

** If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the 
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on 
the right hand of God." J 

We have already learned that baptism was per- 
formed in water ; that persons to be baptized 
went down into the water, and that another bap- 
tized them. We now learn, 

1. That in baptism there is a burial and a resur- 
rection ; a burial in water and a resurrection out 
of it. 

2. That this was an act of faith — so that not 
only the body, but the entire person, was buried 
and rose again. 

3. That this baptism identified its subjects with 



* Rom. vi. 3, 4. tCol. ii. 12, 13. J Col. iii. I. 



BAPTISM 153 

Christ — with his death and resurrection, and en- 
abled them to appropriate the blessings of that 
death and resurrection. 

4. That this baptism was the transition from a 
life of sin to a life of righteousness ; so that now 
dead to sin, alive to God, their sins forgiven, and 
Christ accepted in all the fullness of his redeem- 
ing power and Christly authority, its subjects were 
''new creatures in Christ Jesus," and ''walked in 
newness of life/' 

We quote just one more text, and then we shall 
have a fair exhibit of the teachings of the New 
Testament on this question : 

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to 
God, being put to death in the flesh, but quick- 
ened by the Spirit. By which also he went and 
preached to the spirits in prison ; which some- 
time were disobedient, when once the long-suffer- 
ing of God waited in the days of Noah, while the 
ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight 
souls, were saved by water. The like figure 
whereunto even baptism doth also now save us 
(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, 
but the answer {eperoteeuia^ asking, inquiry] of a 



154 TALKS TO BEE FANS. 

good conscience toward God), by the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ." * 

There are some critical difficulties in the text 
with which we do not trouble our readers, because 
we are writing for those who have little ability to 
comprehend such criticism except in its results. 
We prefer to make such a statement of the teach- 
ing of the text as will not be seriously affected by 
the criticisms to which we allude. 

1. Noah and his family were saved through 
water — not through water a/one, but through water 
as one of the means or agencies employed for 
their deliverance ; not through baptism^ but simply 
through water, 

2. An antitype to this water Peter finds in bap- 
tism ; and an antitype to their salvation, in the 
salvation now effected by baptism. 

3. This antitypical salvation he describes both 
negatively and positively, (i.) The baptism which 
saves is not like the Jewish baptisms, which merely 
effected a legal and fleshly purification ; " not put- 
ting away the filth of the flesh" — legal unclean- 
ness.f (2.) It is the answer of a good conscience 



*• I Pet. iii. 18-21. f See Nuip, -'^'- 



BAPTISM. 155 

toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
This salvation related to the conscie7ice. We do 
not enter on the critical question concerning epe- 
roteema, whether it ought to be translated asking, 
inquiry, answer, seeking, or what not. Whether 
it is the seeking, the obtaining, or the answer of a 
good conscience, one thing is evident — baptism 
relates to the conscience ; and salvation is not 
complete without baptism^ else it could not be said, 
** baptism saves us." 

Concerning the type, several things are clear. 

(i.) The water saved only those who were be- 
lieving and obedient to God. 

(2.) The water separated between these believ- 
ers and the unbelieving world. 

(3.) The water effected for these believers a 
transition from one world to another, and brought 
them into a new covenant with God. 

So baptism saves only believers in Christ ; it is 
the line of separation between them and unbe- 
lievers ; it carries them over from the old world, 
and the old life of sin, into a new covenant rela- 
tionship with God, through the death, burial, and 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and their death, 
burial, and resurrection with him. 



156 TALKS TO BEEEASS. 

We have not troubled our readers much with 
the judgment of commentators, but on this some- 
what difficult text we take pleasure in quoting 
from the notes of Fronmiiller, in Lange's Com- 
mentary : 

*' The end contemplated is not, as in the case 
of Jewish lustrations, purification from the filth of 
the body. . . The antithesis of the putting away 
of the filth of the flesh suggests a reference to 
the moral import of baptism ; to inward, spiritual 
cleansing. Hence the apostle names this agatJice 
sitiieidecsis as the end contemplated in baptism. 
With this we have to connect the apposition eis 
TlieoUy for a good conscience toward God, which 
is much more than a good conscience toward meti 
(I. Cor. iv. 4), is just what we need. . . As to the 
matter itself, the good conscience can not be sup- 
posed to be existing at baptism, and preceding it, 
for the apostle elsewhere regards a good con- 
science as something received at, and effected by, 
baptism (Acts ii. 38). If the good conscience 
were anterior to baptism, it would be difficult to 
see how salvation, by means of baptism, could be 
necessary. What, then, is the meaning of cpei-o- 
tecmay which occurs only once, and that in this 



BAPTISM. 



^S7 



passage, in the New Testament? We should ex- 
pect a word signifying the cleansing of the con- 
science : but eperoteema is never used in such a 
sense ; nor does it signify promise, or pledge, as 
Grotius explains the word from the usage of 
Roman law, nor address, confidence, open ap- 
proach ; but simply asking, inquiry. This gives 
quite a good sense ; baptism is the inquiry for a 
good conscience before God, the desire and long- 
ing for it. iutz approaches the right explanation: 
^Baptism is the request for a good conscience, for 
admittance to the state of reconciliation on the 
part of such as have a good conscience toward 
God; a petition for the pardon of sin, which is 
obtained by the merits of Christ,' " 

Waterland, on Justification, page 440, says : 
" St. Peter assures us that baptism saves ; that 
is, it gives a just title to salvation, which is the 
same as to say that it conveys justificatioii. But 
then it must be understood, not of the oiitivard 
washhig, but of the imvard, lively faith stipulated 
in it and by it. Baptism concurs with faith, and 
faith w^ith baptism, and the Holy Spirit with both ; 
and so the merits of Christ are savingly applied. 
Faith alone w411 not ordinarily serve in this case; 



158 TALKS TO BEEEAXS. 

but it must be a contracting faith on juaii s party. 
contracting in form corresponding to the federal 
promises and engagements on God's part!' 

Rev. John Lillie, D. D., late pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church at Kingston, New York, in his 
admirable Lectures on the Epistles of Peter, says 
on this text : 

'' But what, you will ask, is baptism, then, a 
saving ordinance? Certainly; that is iust what 
Christ's apostle here affirms. Nor is this the 
only place by any means in which the New Testa- 
ment speaks of baptism in a way that would now 
oiiend many good people, were it not that the per- 
plexing phraseology is unquestionably Scriptural."* 

A careful examination and comparison of the 
Scriptures we have presented will lead our readers, 
we trust, to certain and safe conclusions as to what 
baptism is, who are proper subjects of it, and what 
is its design. 

May they all determine to walk in the light of 
truth, that their faith may not stand in the wisdom 
of men, but in the power of God. 



* Lectures on the First and Second Epistles of Peter, pp. 252^ 
253. C. Scribner & Co., 1869. 



SERMON XVI. 

A NEW CREATURE. 

*' If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away ; 
behold, all things are become new." — 2 Cor. v. 17. 

IV T OW that we have carefully considered and 
X \l answered the two questions: (i.) What has 
God done to save sinners ? (2.) What are sinners 
required to do to be saved ? it may be well to 
pause and inquire, What changes are wrought 
in, or in behalf of, him who accepts this sal- 
vation ? The text describes him as *'a new 
creature." This language is expressive of a very 
thorough change. Literally, indeed, it imports not 
change, but an absolutely new being. But the 
language must not be made to do this service. 
The entire teaching of the Scriptures represents, 
not the creation of a new being, but the salvation 
of one who was lost ; the reconciliation of one 
who was an enemy ; the justification of a con- 

(159) 



I Co TALKS TO BEREANS. 

demned sinner. It is the same being who sinned 
that is now justified, the same being that was lost 
who is now saved. He has the same faculties, the 
same powers, the same individuality. The lan- 
guage, therefore, can mean no more than that the 
change is so great and wonderful as to appear 
like a new creation — a style of speech not un- 
known to the Jews in describing the proselytes 
made from heathenism. The new creature is not 
the creation of something out of nothing, but 
rather a new creation in the sense belonging to 
the phrase when we speak of the life, and bloom., 
and music of the glad spring-time as a new crea- 
ation. Contrasted with the nakedness and deso- 
lation of winter, the life of spring is as beautiful 
and glorious as if it had just sprung from the 
creative hand. But the earth has only come into 
a new position to the sun, whose directer rays 
beam on it and penetrate its bosom with life-giv- 
ing influences ; and the germs of life hidden in 
the earth, which sought development in vain be- 
fore, now touched with the vivifying power, which 
could not then gain access, unfold their hidden 
treasures and burst into gay and vigorous devel- 
opment. But it is the same earth that we called 



A NEW CREATURE, l6l 

dead and desolate last winter. So the soul of man 
is brought under the direct beams of the Sun of 
Righteousness. In its alienation it held such a 
position God-ward that the beams of truth fell not 
on it, or fell so obliquely as not to penetrate. 
Now the light and heat of the Gospel fall directly 
on it, and touch with vivifying power the latent 
energies of the soul and the seeds of truth that 
have been deposited there ; and the same nature 
that was frost-bound and fruitless, and as it were 
dead, breaks out in a new life of faith and repent- 
ance and obedience, and is gay with buds and 
blossoms, promising a rich fruitage of holiness. 
As we stand, to-day,* amid the glorious outburst 
of beauty and of song in forest and field and gar- 
den, and listen on the hill-side to the music of the 
gently flowing river at its base, and see mountain 
and valley and stream bathed in the grateful light 
of heaven, and answering back its messages of 
love with a teeming life that struggles heavenward 
— we say, viewing the contrast with frozen river 
and naked trees, and barren hill-sides and howling 
winds of a few months ago, "old things are passed 



* Written in May. 
II 



1 62 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

away ; behold, all things are become new/' The 
language is not literally correct, but it is, in its 
understood sense, true and forcible. 

We must make another remark to guard against 
misapprehension. The language of our text, and 
that of m,any parallel passages, describes a change 
which took place in the case of the mass of con- 
verts in apostolic times, who were lifted suddenly 
out of the extreme degradation of heathenism, or 
the scarcely less fearful moral degradation of Juda- 
ism. The world was, morally, in a terrible abyss. 
*' Dead in trespasses and sins " was none to^ forci- 
ble language to express it. *' Out of the depths " 
they came, sometimes in a day or an hour — as 
soon as they heard the Gospel — driven by their 
sense of utter wretchedness and lured by the di- 
vine sweetness and richness of the mercy offered 
in the Gospel. It was a change "out of darkness 
into marvelous light ;" out of death into life ; and 
it required strong language to express it. 

No doubt it is about as great a change to many 
now ; but to multitudes it is not. Reared from 
infancy under gospel influences, breathing in a 
spiritual atmosphere, shielded from debasing and 
corrupting vices, and filled with a knowledge of 



A NEJV CEEATUEE, 163 

divine things, it is impossible they can be the sub- 
jects of so sudden or so marked a change. When 
they decide to become Christians, they are already* 
within a step or two of perfecting the decision. 
They are brought to the same decision with those 
in apostolic times— that of entire submission to 
the will of God ; but they have been brought to it 
in the gradual process of education, and without 
an experimental knowledge of the vileness and 
degradation into which others have descended. 
Conversion, speaking experimentally, will vary 
with the various influences and conditions under 
which we have been reared, and in which the gos- 
pel finds us. It finds some much further away 
from God than others. In reaching the same 
landing place, the former have farther to come 
than the latter, and will tell, experimentally, a dif- 
ferent story. No human experience can, therefore, 
be a correct standard for all. 

But we propose to consider the changes accom- 
plished in the sinner who becomes a Christian. 
We are are not now to encumber our investiga- 
tions with the merely circumstantial differences of 
different conversions. The changes we are about 
to describe may be gradually wrought through the 



1 64 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

years of childhood and youth with some, they may 
be more suddenly and powerfully wrought in 
others under different circumstances ; but between 
the point where the gospel first finds us and that 
in which we are recognized as "new creatures," it 
must be wrought in all. 

The phrase "in Christ" describes the fullness 
of this change. Christ in us, and we in Christ, is 
the whole story. But this is too vague. We must 
come more into detail, to meet the wants of in- 
quirers. 

I. There is a change of mind — perhaps we had 
better say a change of ideas and principles. Just 
as we learn to believe in Christ and fix our attention 
on Him, faith transfers his thoughts and reasonings 
into our minds. We come to think as he thinks — 
to see with his eyes and to judge with his judgment, 
about sin and righteousness, heaven and hell, time 
and eternity, man and God. He revolutionizes 
our conceptions of all these things. Sin comes to 
be ugly and odious, and righteousness takes on a 
heavenly beauty and dignity. The things of time, 
that were once all to us, lose their magnitude and 
dwindle into insignificance; and the things of 
eternity loom up in a grandeur and awfulness and 



A NEW ORE A TUBE. 1 65 

reality that did not belong to them before Christ 
was our teacher. God, who was only a terror to 
us, is now bending over us with a Father s love, 
waiting with open arms to receive the prodigal 
back to the home he forsook. The holiness and 
justice of God are not less, but more, than they 
used to be ; but his compassion and mercy, as now 
seen, smite the conscience with the greater power 
that such justice and holiness, and compassion and 
mercy, have been so long despised or neglected. 
A change at the soul's center concerning Christ, 
changes every hue and aspect of every moral and 
spiritual question in the entire circumference of 
human intelligence; so that faith in Christ — the 
implicit acceptance of Christ as our Lord and 
Saviour — is a revolution in our conceptions and 
estimates of all spiritual realities. God is good, 
compassionate, and loving ; man is sinful, guilty, 
and helpless ; sin is abominable ; holiness is beauti- 
ful ; the world, with its pomps and pleasures, is an 
empty shadow ; heaven is real, and eternal life all 
that is worth living for. This life, with its noblest 
interests, has dignity and value only as it relates 
to the life that is eternal. We become new in our 
ideas and principles ; the old standards and the 



1 66 TALKS TO BEEEANS, 

old estimates of life and its aims, and the old rules 
and maxims of life, are all rejected ; and with our 
spiritual vision rectified, we see all things in the 
light of Christ's teachings. "Old things are 
passed away, behold all things are become new." 

2. There is a change of heart. The feelings and 
affections run in new channels and flow in new di- 
rections. We love God, love his people, love all 
that is good and noble and pure, love even our 
enemies. We hate sin. We hate the pride that so 
long blinded us, and the selfishness that so long per- 
verted all our aims. We love the Bible. We love 
to pray. We love to meditate and talk of spiritual 
things. We love the practice of righteousness. 
The life of holiness, which once seemed so distaste- 
ful and burdensome, is now beautiful to think 
upon, and its heaviest crosses seem light and easy. 
The associations that once charmed us — the 
frivolities and gayeties and carnal excitements of 
the world — have lost their attractiveness, and in- 
stead seem repulsive, and sometimes even hideous. 
Life has new meaning to us. The brightness of 
the new love in our hearts lends a new luster to 
every thing that is good ; the love of God in Christ 
makes the spirit so joyous, that we are insensible 



A NEW CREATURE, 167 

to much that formerly annoyed and oppressed us ; 
and the hope of heaven puts a new interpretation 
alike on the joys and sorrows of our lot. In re- 
spect to the heart, as well as the mind, " old 
things are passed way, behold all things are be- 
come new/* Christ in the heart creates a new 
world for us. 

We ought to say here that the phrase " Be con- 
verted," in the common version of the Scriptures, 
is an improper rendering. It is the active voice, 
and should be rendered actively, tzirn, "Repent 
and turn y that your sins may be blotted out, and 
that seasons of refreshment may come from the 
presence of the Lord."* This gives us the 
clearest idea of what is accomplished in regen- 
eration ; it is the tnrning of the sinner to God — 
his turning from falsehood to truth, from sin 
to righteousness, from the love and practice of 



* There is no longer a doubt as to the incorrectness of the ren- 
dering in our common version. Two things sinners were required 
to do: I. Repent; 2. Turn to God. Three things were promised 
to result from this repentance and turning: i. Their sins should 
be blotted out ; 2. Seasons of refreshment should come from the 
presence of the Lord ; 3. Jesus Christ should be sent to them for 
tljeir final redemption. See A. Clarke, Bengel, Alford, Lange, on 
this text. 



1 68 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

evil to the love and practice of good, from false 
trusts and guides to a true trust in Him who is 
the Way the Truth, the Life. Consider that it is 
the same being who was going wrong who is 
turned to the right ; the same mind that was 
thinking evil that is ttcrned to think that which is 
true and good ; the same heart that was loving 
sin that is ttir7ied to love that which is good and 
holy. It is a perverted nature restored to in- 
tegrity, through the truth and mercy of God, re- 
vealed in Christ, apprehended by faith, and appro- 
priated by obedience to the gospel. 

We are not yet done with the changes wrought 
in the sinner in bringing him to God. But we 
must pause here and let the reader consider what 
has been submitted. 



SERMON XVII. 

A NEW CREATURE. 

A THIRD change to be noted in forming a 
new creature in Christ Jesus, is the new re- 
lationship into which the behever is introduced. 
Consider attentively the following passages, and 
especially the force of the preposition i7ito, as 
marking a transition from one set of relations to 
another entirely different. 

" Baptizing them into the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.'* * 

"Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he can not enter i7ito the kingdom of 

God."t 

" Know ye not that so many of us as were bap- 
tized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his 
death } Therefore we are buried with him by bap- 
tism into death." % 



*Matt. xxviii. 19. f John iii. 5. X Rom. vi. 3, 4. 

(169) 



170 



TALKS TO BKREANS, 



** Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become 
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye 
should be married to another, even to him who is 
raised from the dead, that ye should bring forth 
fruit unto God." * 

** For ye are all the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus ; for as many of you as have been 
baptized i7ito Christ, have put on Christ *' f 

"Remember . . . that at that time ye were 
without Christ, being aliens from the common- 
wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants 
of promise, having no hope and without God in 
the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who 
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood 
of Christ. . . . Now, therefore, ye are no 
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens 
with the saints, and of the household of God." J 

" Who hath delivered us from the power of dark- 
ness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of 
his dear Son." § 

These texts are sufficient to establish the truth 
that, in addition to the change of mind and heart 
previously spoken of, there is an evident and sen- 



*Rom. vii. 4. t Gal. iii. 26, 27. % Eph. ii. 11-19. g Col. i. 13. 



A NEW CREATURE. 



171 



sible transition into new relations to the spiritual 
universe. A change of relationship is a change 
affecting the whole being. It is not simply the 
mind or the heart passing into a new state, but 
the person — the entire being. The body, therefore, 
as well as the spirit is subject to this change. It 
is effected, therefore, not by a mere mental act, 
or an emotion of the heart, but by an act of faith, 
in which the body, as well as the mind, shares ; 
in which, by a formal and overt proceeding, the 
soul weds itself to the object of its trust and love, 
and with which it may forever associate the ac- 
ceptance of the salvation of God. That baptism 
is that act of faith in which the believer enters 
into these new relationships, needs no further 
proof than the plain and unequivocal declarations 
of Scripture already quoted. This ordinance has 
peculiar significance as marking the formal and 
complete separation of its subject from the life of 
sin and alienation, and his complete entrance into 
the covenant of peace and grace. It is the mar- 
riage ceremony— the act of naturalization — the 
adopting act. He who scripturally submits to it 
is married to Christ — becomes a citizen of the 
kingdom of heaven — is owned a child of God. 



172 



TALKS TO BEREANS, 



There are no degrees in a change of state. It 
is instantaneous. The change of mind may be 
gradual ; the change of heart also ; but the change 
of state is accomplished at once. We are either in 
Christ or out of Christ ; either aliens or citizens ; 
either strangers or children ; and baptism is the 
dividing line between these states. On one side 
of it we are aliens from the commonwealth of 
Israel ; on the other we are fellow-citizens with 
the saints and members of the household of God. 

It is impossible to describe in words the tran- 
scendant honor and dignity that belongs to a child 
of God. The beloved apostle, in contemplating 
this subject, breaks out in a transport of admira- 
tion : '^ Behold, what manner of love the Father 
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called 
the sons of God." * It is not possible to conceive 
of a rank more exalted. No wonder that our Lord, 
though recognizing in John the Baptist the great- 
est among men in point of official power, should 
say, " Nevertheless the least in the kingdom of 
heaven is greater than he;" for a mere official 
rank is as nothing compared with the spiritual 

* I John iii. i. 



A NEW CBEATURE. 1 73 

rank to which the grace of God elevates the con- 
verted sinner. Not among all the ranks of angels, 
cherubs, and seraphs, is there any thing to com- 
pare with this. *' To which of the angels saith he 
at any time. Thou art my son ? " " Are they not 
all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
them who are heirs of salvation ?'' * Yet what he 
says of his Son he says also of the ransomed sin- 
ner — " for both he that sanctifieth and they who 
are sanctified are all of one [Father], for which 
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." f 

" If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ." J Partners of Jesus, we share 
his cross, and will also share his crown. He is 
identified with us in the sorrows and burdens and 
dishonors of our earthly lot, and identifies us with 
himself in the triumphs, dignities, and glories of his 
reign — so that because he lives, we shall live also ; 
and to him that overcometh will he give to sit 
down with him on his throne, even as he overcame 
and is seated with the Father on his throne. 

How ineffably great and glorious, then, is our 
rank as sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty ! 



* Heb. i. 5, 14. t Heb. ii. II. % '^om, viii. 17. 



174 ' TALKS TO BEREANS. 

How adorable the grace that rescues us from death 
and exalts us to a place in the household of God ! 
Surely, '' if any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature ; old things are passed away, behold all 
things are become new." 

4. A changed character. The result of the afore- 
mentioned changes is a change of character. 
"Now, being made free from sin, and become serv- 
ants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and 
the end everlasting life/' * " Formerly ye were 
darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord : walk 
as children of the light." f A changed character 
is the legitimate result of the changes we have 
mentioned. It is not the intention of these papers 
to enter into the details of Christian life. That 
may be done in another series. Our present ob- 
ject is to lead sinners to Christ. We will only 
say, therefore, on this head, that where Christ has 
become the object of trust and love, the life must 
and will be modeled on his life. Beholding him, 
adoring him, appropriating his counsels, drinking 
into his Spirit, we shall be "changed into the same 
image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 



* Rom. vi. 22. t Eph. v. 8. 



A NEW CEEATURE, 



175 



of the Lord."* Hence, says Paul, "As ye have 
received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in him — • 
rooted in him, and built upon him, and established 
in the faith wherein ye have been taught, abound- 
ing therein with thanksgiving." f 

This involves, also, a change in our enjoyments. 
Because we are sons, God sends forth the Spirit of 
his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father. Our 
delight is in God — his word, his will, his ways, his 
works, his people. *' Being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom also we have access, by faith, 
into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in 
hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but 
we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribula- 
tion worketh patience ; and patience, experience ; 
and experience, hope ; and hope maketh not 
ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad 
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given 
unto us." J "Old things are passed away, behold 
all things are become new." 

5. The final change is that of destiny. We are 
delivered from death, and made heirs according to 



* 2 Cor. iii. 18. f Col. ii. 6, 7. { Rom. v. 1-5. 



176 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

the hope of eternal life. Not only is the spirit 
within us born of God, but our very bodies are to 
be born from the grave into the beauty and grandeur 
of immortality. " He will change our vile bodies, 
and fashion them like to his own glorious body, 
according to the power whereby he is able to sub- 
due all things to himself." * Then this glorified 
body, inhabited by a purified spirit, and shining 
like the sun, shall inherit new heavens and a new 
earth, and possess the everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Sin, death, hell, 
all conquered — eternal security, eternal holiness, 
and eternal love shall be the portion of the sinner 
saved by grace. 



* Phil. iii. 21. 



SERMON XVIII. 

EXHORTATION. 

*' And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying. Save your- 
.clves from this untoward generation." — Acts ii. 40. 

HAVING set before our readers the need of 
salvation, and pointed out its source in the 
grace of God, its revelation in the life, death, 
and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, its confir- 
mation by the Holy Spirit, and its conditions as 
announced by the apostles ; we desire in conclu- 
sion, to address to such as have not accepted this 
salvation, a few words of exhortation. 

To make this salvation yours, it must be per- 
sonally accepted. The choice must be your own. 
No other one can believe for you, repent for you, 
or be baptized for you ; nor will God interfere with 
your liberty by compelling you into reconciliation. 
It would not, indeed, be reconciliation without the ' 

voluntary yielding of your own heart to God. On 
12 (177) 



178 TALKS TO BEEEANS, 

the divine side, the work is complete. The oxen 
and fatlings have been killed, the feast has been 
spread, and ^* all things are ready." It remains 
for you to come and partake freely. God has pio- 
vided the feast, but he will not compel you to come 
and eat ; the feast is spread in vain for you, if you 
do not appropriate it by your own voluntary faith 
and obedience. Dismiss, I pray you, the thought 
that heaven is withholding the blessing of salva- 
vation from you, or that your acceptance of it 
depends on a special visitation from on high. 
God's providences and judgments may render 
some seasons more propitious than others for 
saving impressions on your heart, but there is no 
day or hour when you may not come, if yon ivilly 
and partake of the water of life freely. Hence 
Jesus attributes the failure of the Jews to receive 
the blessing to their own stubborn will : " Ye 
would not.''* And the apostles could account in 
no other way for their failure to convert those to 
whom they preached the gospel, than that they 
** judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, 
and put it from them." \ The reason*^ that it is 



* Matt, xxiii. ^*J, f Acts xiii. 46. 



EXHOETATIOK 



179 



sometimes day and sometimes night, is not that 
the sun ceases to shine, but that the earth turns 
away from its everlasting brightness. 

** Earth, turning from the sun, brings night to man ; 
Man, turning from his God, brings endless night." 

The reason that it is sometimes winter and 
sometimes summer, is not that the sun has with- 
drawn his beams, but that the earth has changed 
its position. The sun shines on forever — its Hght 
and heat never fail. But the earth turns away 
where the sunbeams can not strike. When the 
earth comes back again into a true position, it is 
greeted with the unfailing light and heat of the 
unchanging sun, and its frosty bosom is penetrated 
with life-giving power, and answers back in bud 
and blossom and golden fruitage. So the soul of 
man may be ice-bound and desolate under the 
wintry reign of sin, while the Love of God re- 
mains as rich and powerful as ever. Let the soul 
but " turn to God," and it will be bathed in a light 
that never fails, and quickened with a power of 
grace that is as unchanging as God's own nature. 
The earth can not help itself. It is passive in the 
hands of omnipotence to be turned hither and 



l8o TALKS TO BEEEANS. 

thither at God's will. Not so with your spiritual 
nature. This is endowed with a self-sovereignty 
which its Creator ever respects and will not violate. 
''Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any 
man hear my voice and open the door, I will come 
in, and sup with him and he with me." * Yes, he 
stands at the door and knocks ; but he will not 
force the door. You must open to him, or he will 
never come in. Will you shut out your God, and 
refuse him admittance to the heart he has created 
and desires to redeem } It is in your power to do 
it ; but if you are wicked enough to venture on 
this reckless assertion of self-sovereignty, and 
choose a godless life, complain not if at last you 
find a godless destiny. 

Your religious nature is your highest, noblest 
nature. You do yourself great injustice if you 
neglect its interests. The dignity of your being 
depends on the symmetry of your powers. Those 
which are earthly and relate to time, are not to 
be neglected. They have their value, and should 
not be slighted. But they are inferior, and should 
be held in subordination to the spiritual. They 



*Rev. iii. 20. 



EXHORTATION, igl 

should be servants, not masters. When they are 
lifted into supremacy, and the strength of Hfe is 
given to the flesh or to mere intellect, human 
nature is robbed of its crown of glory, and the 
distance between the man and the brute is so 
diminished that it may well puzzle the wisest to 
decide wherein one excels the other in real 
advantage. A merely intellectual superiority is 
of little worth, if we must perish with the ob- 
jects for which we live ; and if we are to have a 
merely animal destiny, who can say that it is 
worth while to seek any thing higher than an 
animal life .'^- 

Admit a destiny after death, and this enslave- 
ment to time and sense is unspeakably foolish and 
absurd — because that future destiny must grow 
out of the life we have lived here. Neither Script- 
ure nor sound philosophy teaches that heaven and 
hell are arbitrary appointments. By eternal and 
immutable laws we shall reap as we have sown. 
An impure nature is, from its own character and 
by its own proclivities, barred from a pure and 
happy heaven. The manhood of our being will be 
what its childhood and youth shall have made it. 
What madness, then, to linger among the toys aivd 



1 82 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

sports of childhood, and shun the needful prepara- 
tion for manhood's greatness and dignity ! What 
supreme folly to attempt to fill the nature that 
never dies with the perishable treasures and pleas- 
ures of earth ! 

This leads us to say that it is a most unworthy 
notion of religion which regards it as simply 
meant to prepare us for dying — which invests it 
with magical pov/er to transform a polluted sinner, 
in the agonies of death, into a pure and glorified 
saint. No, no ; religion is a life. Its immediate 
object is to turn the heart to God and train the 
life in the ways of God. It is to place us in har- 
mony with all that is true and good, that w^e may 
grow up into stateliness and fruitfulness, as *' trees 
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he 
may be glorified.'* It imparts a new meaning and 
a new value to all that makes up life. Duties, 
trials, pleasures, all receive a new significance in 
the light of the religion of Jesus. The sun is 
brighter, the flowers have a new beauty and fra- 
grance, the song of the birds is sweeter far, home 
is dearer, friends are more precious to us, love is 
holier, toil is more cheerful, sorrows are lighter, 
our songs grow more jubilant, and our tears are 



EXHORTATION. 



183 



wiped away ; for the radiance of heaven is poured 
on all earthly things, and the eternity that has 
opened on us gives a new interpretation to all 
that enters into our present life. It is a great in- 
justice to ourselves, therefore, to shut out from 
life that which alone can give it true significance, 
inspire it with a worthy aim, and reconcile us to 
its burdens and conflicts. Every day is worse 
than wasted that is not consecrated, in harmony 
with the religion of Jesus, to the true aim of 
life. 

That the life to which the gospel calls us is one 
of struggle and conflict, we will not conceal from 
you. Let no one enter it with false expectations. 
It has no charms and no rewards for the slothful, 
the indifferent, or the time-serving. All along its 
rugged path, on the rough mountain-side up which 
it leads us, are heard trumpet-calls to battle, and 
the mighty Prince of Salvation, who leads on the 
hosts, is stern in his requirements of self-denial 
and unceasing vigilance and toil. He asks no fol- 
lowers that will not follow Him to death, bearing 
the cross for His sake. ** If any man come after 
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow me." If we follow, we follow in no 



1 84 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

path of flowers — but rather of flints and thorns, 
and we shall often be footsore and weary, even as 
was the Man of Sorrows. But what of that ? 
Think you to escape struggle and conflict, by 
shunning the leadership of Jesus? I tell you nay. 
We are in for the struggle, whether we follow 
Jesus or refuse to follow him. The difference is 
between struggling with and for him, and against 
him. In the one case, w^e struggle w4th God, and 
heaven, and an approving conscience on one 
side — *' heart within and God o'erhead" — on the 
other, the frown of offended truth darkens our 
path, the thunders of a condemning conscience 
peal and crash through the chambers of the soul, 
and only the false and wdcked of earth and hell 
stand by us ! It is really more difficult and terri- 
ble to fight your way dozvn, than to fight your way 
2ip, Ah ! think not that a life of sin or unbelief 
is one of ease and pleasure. At the entrance 
there may be sunshine and flowers, songs and mer 
riment ; but look at the end thereof: it is death. 
Thunder and lightning and tempest are there — the 
blackness of despair and unnameable terrors — ''a 
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion ;" and even this is reached only through dis- 



EXIIORTATIOK 1 85 

appointment, sorrow, and wretchedness. Fight we 
must ; toil we must. Better fight under the ban- 
ner of righteousness and win a victory that secures 
eternal peace and joy. 

Does it seem too serious a work to undertake — 
more than your weakness will allow you to per- 
form.? Let me remind you that Christian life is 
a growth, and that if you ever begin, you must 
begin in the littleness and weakness and ignorance 
of babyhood. You can neither know much nor do 
much until you come into the enjoyment of life 
and place yourself under suitable conditions of de- 
velopment. You need to know your sinfulness — 
that Jesus is your only Saviour — and what he re- 
quires you to do to be saved. That is enough to 
start with. You can not see far, but if you take 
the lamp of truth in your hand, it will still throw 
light ahead of you until you reach the heavenly 
home. You can not do much ; but doing what 
you can, your strength will increase to do more, 
until you grow "strong in the Lord and in the 
power of his might." There is strength according 
to our day for every duty and for every trial. 

Do you feel that you are not a great sinner — 
that your life is unstained by any gross sin or 



1 86 TALKS TO BEREANS, 

crime? Then you ought to come, not only with 
a penitential offering for the sins you have com- 
mitted, but with an earnest thank-offering for the 
sins from which you have been preserved. You 
owe as much to the grace of God for preserving 
you from gross sins as for redeeming you from the 
sins that really belong to you. 

There is an immense advantage in the Chris- 
tian life in this: its pleasures and treasures are 
ever increasing — the pleasures and treasures of a 
sinful life are ever decreasing. The latter are 
greatest at first, and dwindle in our hands and 
under our gaze until death turns them all to ashes 
and leaves us bankrupt The former are compar- 
atively limited on the start, but they grow "brighter 
and brighter unto the perfect day." They are 
much to the young, more to man in the prime of 
life, still more to old age, and at the dying hour — 
all! Every thing else is gone — the treasures of 
the grace of God alone remain. Just when the 
worldling becomes hopelessly bankrupt, the Chris- 
tian enters on his inheritance and is made forever 
blessed. 

The demands of the gospel harmonize with 
the highest dictates of an enlightened judgment 



EXHORTATION. 



187 



and the noblest aspirations of a true heart. It 
is the highest manhness to yield to truth, and to 
be swayed by a love so ineffably sweet and pure 
as that which breathes upon us from the heart of 
the bleeding Jesus. Were not the terrible facts 
before us, we should deem it incredible that any 
heart could resist the divinely touching appeals 
that come to perishing sinners, in the words, 
and deeds, and sorrows of Jesus of Nazareth. 
He stooped from heaven to be the partner of 
our weakness and our shame. He carried our 
nature through indescribable perils, in life and 
death — fought its battles, drank its cup of sorrow 
to the dregs, plucked victory from the grasp of 
death and hell, and lifted ransomed humanity in a 
chariot of triumph to the heaven of heavens! 
From the mount of temptation, where he fought 
that terrible duel as the champion of our race, 
and vanquished our most dreaded foe ; from the 
toilsome scenes of a sad and suffering life, where 
his presence banished the griefs, hallowed the 
toils, sanctified the trials, and satisfied the deepest 
cravings of our oppressed nature ; from the hot 
strife of Gethsemane, where through bloody sweat 
and dreadful struggle he lifted our weak humanity 



1 88 TALKS TO BEREANS. 

to a peaceful and blessed victory over fears within 
and foes without; from the bitter cross, where his 
pure heart broke under the weight of reproach 
and shame borne for us ; from the depths of the 
grave, where he fought our last battle and spoiled 
the powers of darkness and swallowed up death 
in victory; and from the bright heavens to which 
he has gone, and where he ever liveth, our Great 
High Priest and Saviour — he calls to us in accents 
of mercy, and invites us back to God. Treasures 
of pardon, adoption, and life eternal are in his 
hand, and his loving entreaty is, '* Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn 
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you 
shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is 
easy and my burden is light." 

Dear reader, whoever you are, to whom this 
message comes, I pray you, in the name of this 
Blessed Saviour, Be ye reconciled to God. 

Once more we repeat to you the solemn words 
of Jesus, the Christ, spoken by the Holy Spirit 
with the impressive admonition, *' He that hath 
ears to hear, let him hear." *' Behold I stand at 
the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, 



EXHORTATION, 1 89 

and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
will sup with him, and he with me." 

Sweetly and tenderly has the poet urged this 
thought, and dwelt on the inevitable result of 
slighting the prayer of this divine suppliant. 
God grant that the warning be not spoken in 
vain. 

In the silent midnight watches — 

List ! thy bosom door, 
How it knocketh, knocketh, knocketh — 

Knocketh evermore. 
Say not 'tis thy pulse's beating — ■ 

'Tis thy heart of sin ; 
'Tis thy Saviour knocketh, crieth, 

** Rise and let me in." 

Death comes down with silent footstep, 

To the hall and hut : 
Think you death will stand a-knocking. 

When the door is shut? 
Jesus waiteth, waiteth, waiteth — 

But the door is fast. 
Grieved, away the Saviour goeth — 

Death breaks in at last ! 

Then 'tis thine to stand entreating 

Christ to let thee in : 
At the door of heaven beating. 

Wailing for thy sin. 



190 



TALKS TO BEREANS, 

Nay, alas ! thoa foolish virgin, 

Hast thou then forgot ? 
Jesus waited long to know thee, 

JVow he knows thee not. 



THE END. 



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